liquid memories ~to read with water, 2022
Douro river and Pasteleira reservoir park, Porto PT
A two-part residency designed to explore the contact zone between water, photography and publishing. Conceived as process-based, this project explores the fluidity of memory and place through the lens of water, engaging with bodies of water as living archives that embody histories, cultures, and ecological transformations.
Liquid Memories began with the “situated waters” of the Douro River and Pasteleira reservoir park, in the city of Porto, Portugal. The first bloc of works, ‘WATER STATIONS,’ was developed in a workshop with a group
of Porto-based artists and photographers. Water samples collected from a local water treatment plant were used to soak photographic collections, unleashing water’s archival materialities. This process not only highlighted water's role in shaping and reflecting our collective memories and identities but also explored its capacity to transform and reveal new narratives within the photographic medium.
The second bloc of works, ‘WATER STORIES,’ was activated through a mass zoom live editing lab and an open call for further collaborations, extending the project's reach beyond Porto to include waters far afield such as Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean, the Azores archipelago, Africa, and Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
This phase of the project fostered a global dialogue
on water's significance across different cultures and environments, inviting participants to share their unique water stories and experiences.
Participants in the "Liquid Memories" project experimented with methodologies of ‘wateryquery’ developed out of artistic research with water. Step by step, guided exercises were developed to figure bodies
of water, focusing on moments of connection with the intricacy of watery memories. The term ‘wateryquery’ itself, a blend of ‘water’ and ‘enquiry,’ suggests a felt sense of enquiring with water, embodying a new approach to understanding and interacting with water that transcends conventional methodologies and invites
a deeper, more intuitive engagement.
Project, workshops + editorial design:
paula roush
Photo-texts:
Maria João Ferreira
paula roush
Betina Dal Molin Juglair
Francisco Varela
Miguel Marecos
Joana Nascimento
David Goldenberg
Raul Simões Pinto,
NDMALO archive
Alice WR
Teresa Huertas
Carla Fragata
Manuela Matos Monteiro
Luís Carvalhal
Natércia Caneira
João de Goes
Inês R. Amado
Eduardo Sousa Ribeiro
Ana Botelho
Manuela Vaz
Renato Roque
Eliane Velozo
and Severino Iaba
Susana Paiva
Mide Plácido
Commissioning curator:
Francisco Varela
Publishing Events:
Related works:
contact
paula roush ::: paularoush@gmail.com
msdm studio ::: msdm@msdm.org.uk