Water is life, Let's rain - 2019
Water unites us in the art of awakening to life
Water is the basis of life: of birth in molecular biology, of growth in agriculture, and of the path of evolution and progress in history and social anthropology, just to name a few examples. Above all, of the balance of the system.
If there is no water or if it is in short supply, the world around and inside us becomes unstable. Let us consider the importance of the seas, rivers, lakes and oceans, where both fresh and salt water rule unchallenged; the cells of our bodies, too, are nourished and function at their best thanks to water. Water accounts for 60% of the human body, and for 80% of newborns’ bodies. Therefore, water is a vital asset for all, a resource that unites and supports all living beings. Its powerful symbolic aspect transcends even its function, which is why we must safeguard it and protect it!
Just as water unites all human beings, so the lack of it can divide people and create unbalance: climate change, environmental pollution, the destruction of centuries-old forests, increased needs due to world population growth, and humans’ destructive behaviour have caused and are creating a great “thirst” for water everywhere. Thankfully, this “thirst” is counterbalanced by significant growth in collective and individual awareness about both water and the earth that receives it and transforms it.
One way in which L’Isola D’Oro, the Parma-based fish preserves company whose business roots are set in the fertile waters of the sea, acts for the protection of water resources is by spreading awareness through art. How? By supporting “Let’s Rain”, an interactive public art experimental project, or rather, an aesthetic, socially engaged action that has created a bridge between humankind and the environment in a website and audience-specific way.
The protagonists of this project are the Panem Et Circenses Collective from Bologna, Silvia Petronici, contemporary art curator, and two Maori shamans, Erena Rangimarie Rere Omaki and Sam Manawa AnnaMaria Sartori,.
The Interactive Performance will take place at the L’Isola D’Oro headquarters in Parma.
On Friday, 22 March, at 5:30 pm, on the occasion of World Water Day - a day designed by the United Nations, the presentation of the interactive public art project “Let’s Rain”, supported by L’Isola D’Oro, will take place in Parma.
Participants, gathered into a space delimited by objects related to Let's Rain (such as capes, sticks and a jug full of water), will be welcomed by the Karanga chant of the Maori shaman Sam Manawa, while people will sit in a circle on the ground, on previously arranged rugs and pillows. The curator and the artists will describe the project (which features on the cover of Anna Petronici’s book: “A piedi nudi ballano i santi” - The saints dance barefoot), and will engage in a dialogue with participants on environmentally themed art. L’Isola D’Oro illustrates its virtuous commissioning role as a company, presents the artists, their motivation, their closeness to spirituality and the function of the relationship between art and shamanism. The subject of commitment to protect water resources, the future of the Earth and much more will be explored for about two hours. The performance will conclude with food sharing, according to Maori tradition, thus closing the sacred space in which those presents will have taken part.
