The Way of the Water

An art parcours in conversation with the rivers Traisen and Mühlbach on the occasion of festival Tangente St. Pölten in Lower Austria. 

Participating artists: Amanda Piña, Vienna, Mexico City; Clara Laila Abid Alsstar, Munich; Cecylia Malik, Krakow; Christina Gruber, Vienna, Amstetten; Edgar Calel, San Juan Comalapa; Elisabeth von Samsonow, Vienna, Hadres; Eva Grubinger & Werner Feiersinger, Berlin, Vienna; Filip Van Dingenen & Hélène Meyer, Brussels; Javier Téllez, New York City; Jimena Croceri, Buenos Aires; Katarina Pirak Sikku, Jokkmokk; Klara Hobza, Berlin, Paris; Lisa Tan, Stockholm; Lisa Truttmann, Vienna; Kollektiv Neonpink, St. Pölten; Paola Torres Núñez del Prado, Stockholm; Rainer Prohaska, Vienna, Krems; Regina Hügli, Vienna; Rita Fischer, Montevideo; Roberta Lazo Valenzuela, St. Pölten, Santiago de Chile; Sissel Tolaas, Berlin; Slavs and Tatars, Berlin; Sophie Utikal, Berlin, Vienna; Ursula K. Le Guin.    

Curated by Joanna Warsza, Berlin, and Associate Curator Lorena Moreno Vera, Vienna and Mexico City

The Way of the Water is a public art exhibition that meanders from south to north and back along the local waterways of St. Pölten, the Traisen and Mühlbach and features 24 artists working directly in and with water as their conversation partner. In our parcours, water “writes” its way across the landscape of the city, inspiring installations, encounters and storytelling. Water is also one of the five cardinal planetary elements – earth, fire, air, space and water – which have existed since time immemorial and transverse most cultures, civilisations and contexts. The appreciation of water as a core human and non-human need is fundamental in what we call a planetary public sphere, where everyone has the same right, no more no less, to those elements. Our exhibition travels from the cosmos to the commons, or as Astrida Neimanis has it, to the planetary “hydrocommons”, the cyclical nature of fluids, which continually reshape the planet as rivers, clouds, or rain. The Way of the Water is an exhibition, which recognises the social and political significance of drinking a glass of water, thinking with water and being water, both in St. Pölten and everywhere else in the world.

The exhibition is part of Kultur St. Pölten 2024, the inaugural Tangente St. Pölten, scheduled from April 30 to October 6, addresses urgent and globally significant topics. Under the artistic direction of Tarun Kade, this new festival for contemporary culture will centre around three key themes: ecology, memory, and democracy. With a focus on inclusivity and cross-disciplinary collaboration, the festival will feature an array of events including theatre, dance, performance, literature, music, as well as science and discourse formats.

For more information, please visit the Tangente St. Pölten website.