Book of Water (Tidal Lea)
Livro da Água (Marés do Lea)
— participatory artwork / river-based practice / tidal archive / collective book-making / ccological printmaking / embodied methodologies / publishing as process / wateryquery/ slow pedagogy / situated artistic research
Rivers and tidal ecologies
Participatory art
Artist’s books
Collective authorship
Hydrofeminist practice
Camaraless photography
Suminagashi
Editorial experimentation
Walking as method
Ecology and memory
Muitas vezes, ao aproximarmo-nos dos rios urbanos, fazemos apenas um gesto de passagem: observamos, atravessamos, seguimos. A água torna-se fundo, infraestrutura, paisagem funcional. Book of Water (Tidal Lea) parte da necessidade de interromper esse movimento e de criar condições para uma escuta prolongada do rio Lea — um afluente do Tamisa cuja dinâmica é profundamente moldada pelo regime das marés e pelas infraestruturas industriais e urbanas que o atravessam.
Este workshop propõe o livro como um dispositivo de atenção e de inscrição coletiva: não um objeto finalizado, mas um arquivo em processo, sensível às variações do rio, às materialidades locais e às experiências partilhadas no tempo da maré. Ao trabalhar com água, plantas, sedimentos e técnicas de impressão ecológica, o projeto desloca a prática editorial para o campo da ecologia situada, onde publicação, caminhada e gesto ritual se entrelaçam.
Que formas de memória emergem quando o livro é construído em relação direta com o território?
Como pode a edição tornar-se um gesto de cuidado, escuta e co-presença com um sistema fluvial?
WORKSHOP
Book of Water (Tidal Lea) é um workshop participativo de prática artística e editorial, desenvolvido no âmbito do Totally Thames Festival, em parceria com o Cody Dock, em Londres.
O workshop foi cuidadosamente sincronizado com o ritmo das marés do rio Lea — um afluente do Tamisa cujo fluxo é governado, em última instância, pela atração do Oceano Atlântico. A estrutura do dia acompanhou esse movimento, criando momentos de intenção, fluxo criativo e reflexão em diálogo com a subida e descida da água.
Conceção: paula roush
Co-facilitação: hera santos
ARTISTAS
Fiona Mackenzie
Laura Dekker
Laura Malacart
Véronique Dupont
Una Leonard
Travis Crowther
Mica Li
Pierre-Luc Chaumet
Rio Javier Gonzalez
Sam Parfitt
METODOLOGIA
A metodologia articula caminhada meditativa, práticas de impressão ecológica e processos colaborativos de edição e encadernação. Os participantes são convidados a abrandar, a observar e a trabalhar com os materiais do próprio lugar — água do rio, plantas recolhidas, papel artesanal, pigmentos naturais, carvão e corda.
A prática editorial é entendida como um processo incorporado: um espaço onde corpo, ambiente e pensamento se alinham. O livro coletivo funciona como um arquivo de maré— um registo instável que acolhe marcas do tempo, do clima e da presença humana, sem procurar fixar ou estabilizar significados.
Cada participante contribui para o livro comum, mas leva consigo também impressões individuais e o rasto afetivo de um dia vivido em atenção partilhada e ritmo desacelerado.
PROGRAMA
O workshop desenrola-se em várias fases interligadas:
– caminhada meditativa ao longo do rio Lea
– recolha de água e materiais vegetais
– práticas de impressão ecológica e cameraless
– construção colaborativa de um livro de artista
– momentos de partilha e reflexão coletiva
O processo privilegia a intuição, o toque e a experimentação, criando um espaço simultaneamente espiritual, pedagógico e comunitário.
LIVRO
Book of Water (Tidal Lea), 2024
Formato: livro de artista coletivo
Materiais: papel de relva, papéis artesanais, água específica do rio, tinta, carvão, corda, botânica e outros materiais orgânicos
Dimensões: 89 × 332 cm (aberto)
CONTEXTO
Comissão: Totally Thames Festival [link]
Parceria: Cody Dock
Local: Cody Dock Growing Space — hub comunitário de horticultura no Lower Lea Valley, estuário do Tamisa
Data: 28 de setembro de 2024
Participantes: 14
Fontes de água:
Recolhidas no rio, Dock 1, Dock 2, bund e água da chuva, aproximadamente três horas antes da maré baixa.
Condições: céu encoberto, vento ligeiro (<5 mph) e presença de camada superficial de óleo após precipitação intensa nos dias anteriores.
Testes de qualidade da água realizados a 24/09/2024 indicaram níveis elevados de fosfatos e nitratos.
Análise e amostras de água:
Gino Brignoli (Cody Dock Biodiversity Officer)
PROJETO RELACIONADO
Book of Water (Tidal Lea) integra a investigação em curso Follow Y/Our River [link], um projeto de caminhada, escuta e publicação situada ao longo do rio Lea, desde a nascente até à sua confluência com o Tamisa. O projeto utiliza água e plantas locais, bem como a técnica japonesa de suminagashi, para explorar formas de arquivo performativo, memória fluvial e temporalidade não linear.
Often, when approaching urban rivers, we make only a gesture of passage: we observe, we cross, we move on. Water becomes background, infrastructure, functional landscape. Book of Water (Tidal Lea) begins from the need to interrupt that movement and to create the conditions for a sustained listening to the River Lea — a tributary of the Thames whose dynamics are profoundly shaped by tidal regimes and by the industrial and urban infrastructures that traverse it.
This workshop proposes the book as a device of attention and collective inscription: not a finished object, but an archive in process, responsive to the river’s variations, to local materialities, and to shared experiences unfolding in tidal time. By working with water, plants, sediment and ecological printing techniques, the project shifts editorial practice into the field of situated ecology, where publishing, walking and ritual gesture become intertwined.
What forms of memory emerge when a book is constructed in direct relation to territory?
How might editing become a gesture of care, listening and co-presence with a fluvial system?
WORKSHOP
Book of Water (Tidal Lea) is a participatory artistic and editorial workshop developed within the framework of the Totally Thames Festival, in partnership with Cody Dock, London.
The workshop was carefully synchronised with the tidal rhythm of the River Lea — a tributary of the Thames whose flow is ultimately governed by the gravitational pull of the Atlantic Ocean. The structure of the day followed this movement, creating moments of intention, creative flow and reflection in dialogue with the rising and falling water.
Concept: paula roush
Co-facilitation: hera santos
ARTISTS
Fiona Mackenzie
Laura Dekker
Laura Malacart
Véronique Dupont
Una Leonard
Travis Crowther
Mica Li
Pierre-Luc Chaumet
Rio Javier Gonzalez
Sam Parfitt
METHODOLOGY
The methodology combines meditative walking, ecological printmaking and collaborative processes of editing and bookbinding. Participants are invited to slow down, observe and work with the materials of the site itself — river water, gathered plants, handmade paper, natural pigments, charcoal and rope.
Editorial practice is understood as an embodied process: a space where body, environment and thought align. The collective book functions as a tidal archive — an unstable record that receives the marks of time, weather and human presence, without seeking to fix or stabilise meaning.
Each participant contributes to the shared book while also taking away individual prints and the affective trace of a day lived in shared attention and decelerated rhythm.
PROGRAMME
The workshop unfolds through interconnected phases:
– meditative walk along the River Lea
– collection of water and vegetal materials
– ecological and cameraless printing practices
– collaborative construction of an artist’s book
– moments of collective sharing and reflection
The process privileges intuition, touch and experimentation, creating a space that is at once spiritual, pedagogical and communal.
BOOK
Book of Water (Tidal Lea), 2024
Format: Collective artist’s book
Materials: grass paper, handmade papers, river-specific water, ink, charcoal, rope, botany and other organic materials
Dimensions: 89 × 332 cm (open)
CONTEXT
Commission: Totally Thames Festival [link]
Partnership: Cody Dock
Location: Cody Dock Growing Space — community horticultural hub in the Lower Lea Valley, Thames Estuary
Date: 28 September 2024
Participants: 14
Water sources:
Collected from the river, Dock 1, Dock 2, the bund and rainwater approximately three hours before low tide.
Conditions: overcast sky, light wind (<5 mph) and a surface oil layer following heavy rainfall in the preceding days.
Water quality testing conducted on 24/09/2024 indicated elevated phosphate and nitrate levels.
Water sampling and analysis:
Gino Brignoli (Cody Dock Biodiversity Officer)
RELATED PROJECT
Book of Water (Tidal Lea) forms part of the ongoing research project Follow Y/Our River [link], a walking, listening and situated publishing practice along the River Lea, from its source to its confluence with the Thames. The project uses locally sourced water and plants, as well as the Japanese technique of suminagashi, to explore forms of performative archive, fluvial memory and non-linear temporality.
River Lea meditation: the workshop begins with a collective movement meditation — an embodied invitation to slow down and enter into dialogue with the river’s presence.
The workshop offers multiple layers of engagement. the meditative walk and the shared experience of making a book create a space that’s both spiritual and communal — a moment to slow down, connect with others, and with the river itself.
the workshop was carefully timed to follow the tidal rhythm of the river lea — a tributary of the thames, whose tides are in turn governed by the pull of the atlantic ocean. participants moved through moments of intention-setting, creative flow, and reflection in synchrony with the rising and falling water, attuning their practice to the pulse of the river system.
Direct contact printing: water prints with local water samples and non-toxic inks; work in collaboration with plants and water, exploring alternative photographic techniques in a way that’s tactile, intuitive, and deeply rewarding.
in a quiet moment of attunement, participants work with river water, plants, and light
— translating their sensory encounters into pages for the collective book.
while participants contribute to a collective artist’s book that holds the memory of the day, they also take home their own prints and experiments, as well as the emotional imprint of a day spent in slowness, attention, and creative flow.
participants gather to assemble and sequence the book — a shared act of reflection,
composing the flow of the day into a tactile river of pages.
River Lea meditation: the workshop ends as it began — with a slow, collective movement meditation
by the water. a gesture of return, release, and embodied gratitude.
'Water in the Library’ offered participants a stream of river-related publications
— a shared space for reading, drifting, and researching ideas in dialogue with water
the river on paper: scanned pages from the collective book, each holding an imprint of the day
— water, breath, plant, and gesture gathered into a shared archive.
Follow Y/Our River (Books of Water)
Part of the Totally Thames Festival
at Cody Dock (Growing Space)
Saturday, 28 September 2024
Totally Thames is an annual season of
unique, diverse and accessible arts and
culture throughout the month of September
with activity taking place on, beneath,
and along the River Thames.
@instagram.com/thamesfestivaltrust/
