"Water makes up to 60% of the human body and 71 % of the earth's surface, and is vital for the survival of human and planetary life. Human corporeal ties to elemental waters are more than metaphorical; they are physical, bodily, and essential: to understand water means to understand our existence, our direction, and ourselves.

The project 'Water as a Site of Transformation' aims at the exploration of our embodied experience of water and the reconsideration of our relationship to water as the matter we are composed of and embedded in, changing our perception from seeing it as a commodified system of economy to seeing it as an expression of life.

As proposed by the political theorist Achille Mbembe, culture should be reconsidered and understood as the possible future of life, which should bear in mind the emergence of a new planetary consciousness. In order to make the necessary cultural shifts possible and create a new cultural agenda however, we firstly need to change the way in which we think about ourselves, our relationships with each other, with our planet, and with life as a whole. Imagining ourselves as watery and therefore connected across space through our waters renounces any illusion of nature as separate from culture, or of humans as separate from the world around us, which can allow us to imaginatively think of planetary life differently. To be able to change our thinking of water, ourselves, and our relationships, and understand the idea of watery being and relating we need to embody it, to activate it by experiencing it as watery beings. This exhibition aims to create a space for experiencing embodiment of water through art.

Departing from Plato´s concept of micro and macrocosm—the human being (microcosm) as a micro version of the universe (macrocosm), reflecting the same underlying order and principles, 'Water as a Site of Transformation' shows a collection of artworks, which focus on our relationship to ourselves and the human body as watery being (microcosm); and our relationship to nature and planetary water as a living being (macrocosm). The relation with our inner waters is explored by the works of Tarah Rhoda, Tear Crystal (Drops) and BS&T, and C-Lab´s Bacterial World and KatERED. Tarah Rhoda investigates the fluidity of the human body through her own blood, sweat and tears (bodies of water that contain emotion). C-Lab´s projects focus on bacterial fluidity as a symbolic representation of the physicality of the human.

The relationship of the human with water around us, is approached by Hannah Rowand and the mapuche artist Seba Calfuqueo, who explore the human as inherently interconnected with the natural world, offering an alternative perspective to the fragmented view promoted by modern society. The project Water as a Site of Transformation aims to explore these artworks as a site of emergence of a new culture narrative, as they can allow us to experience, and, as a result, rethink the current situation of planetary illness and destructive culture/nature divide, and create healthy futures for ourselves and our planet.
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