Un/Drinkable Water

Artistic Research

Project Information

Project
Un/Drinkable Water

Residency
Böhler & Orendt

Location
Vienna, Austria

Year
2023

Type
Artistic Research

Role
Artist · Research · Installation

Description

The paradox of abundance and inaccessibility
As the climate crisis intensifies, a troubling paradox emerges: while access to safe drinking water becomes increasingly precarious, water we cannot drink becomes more visible through floods, contamination, and ecological degradation. We may find ourselves surrounded by water, yet unable to consume it.

Developed during an artistic residency with Böhler & Orendt, Un/Drinkable Water investigates this contradiction, questioning how environmental transformations, unequal access, and the infrastructures governing water distribution are reshaping our relationship with this essential resource.

Through a series of staged photographic compositions, familiar objects associated with consumption and hydration are immersed in water and removed from their conventional contexts. Their subsequent arrangement within a reflective circular installation creates an ambiguous dialogue between nourishment, consumption, and the material presence of water.

Rather than illustrating a distant environmental dystopia, the work draws attention to a contradiction already unfolding: the increasing visibility of water as an environmental threat, alongside the growing precarity of water as a fundamental necessity for life.

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Juan Vértiz Márquez