HUMAN, YOU ARE INVITED

CONFLUENCE OF EUROPEAN WATER BODIES 2024 - Venice Lagoon 3-6 Oct 24

MANIFESTO

The Water Bodies Orchestra

This digital design project is a musical and embodied way to unlock the digital sound archive of European waters. Through interactive group experiences, the human and non-human voices of the water bodies will come together in a performative moment.

The Water Bodies Orchestra has be rehearsed and performed for the first time at the opening ceremony of the Confluence of European Water Bodies, 3 October 2024 inside San Lorenzo Church at Ocean Space Venice, in collaboration with Venice Climate Change Pavilion.

For the concept development and production, the Embassy of the North Sea, on behalf of the Confluence of European Water Bodies, works with director Steye Hallema. Harpo ‘t Hart (Embassy of the North Sea) is involved as sound artist and curator of the project. The soundscapes are recorded by the participating water bodies of Europe. The first orchestra has been co-curated and designed with Letizia Artioli (Venice Climate Change Pavilion).

This project is funded by Creative Industries Fund NL.

Representation of Water
Water is vital for all life on Earth, yet the voices of water are rarely heard in political decisionmaking. Current laws and policies cannot stop the loss of biodiversity or the poisoning of soils, lands, waters and air, because they are grounded in the fiction of the natural world as property or ‘resources’ for human desires. Born out of growing water challenges and demands for water democracy worldwide, the Confluence of European Water Bodies sprang from a collective pursuit of a deeper understanding of the ‘Rights of Nature’ in Europe. As a growing community of care and concern, the Confluence of European Water Bodies aims to foster new dialogues and relationships with water. As a learning system for water diplomacy, new strategies for effectively representing water in Europe's cultural, legal and political realms are being explored, rehearsed and advocated. Read our manifesto on our new website.

Participating Water Bodies
The 2024 edition welcomes a wide variety of water bodies: Baltic Sea, Doggerbank, Drina, Genova waters, Klarälven, Loire, Mar Menor, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Ouse, Oslo Fjord, Pek, Piave, Reuss, Rhône, Snæfellsjökul, Spree, Tara, Tejo, Vättern, Venice Lagoon, Viskan, Vistula, Wattenmeer and Zenne.

Representing the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the world's first ecosystem with legal personhood, Maori elder Erena Rhose will share insights on the Maori worldview in which the river is recognised as a living ancestor. Also representatives from the saltwater lagoon the Mar Menor will participate. Grass roots action groups managed to enforce the installation of a new law declaring the Mar Menor a legal entity in 2022.

https://water-bodies.eu/water-bodies/

Photo Credits: Nicolò Miana