The SHARING WATER exhibition continued its tour along Europe’s main watershed and opened last Friday December 16th at its now fourth location in the Sala Segantini in Savognin, Switzerland. Savognin is close to Pass Lunghin, the most important triple watershed in Europe. Some of the works on display in Savognin are site-specific and related to this extraordinary hydrological crossroads and current water issues in the region.
Just a few kilometres from Savognin, for example, lies the village of Brienz/Brinzauls, which is slowly slipping downhill, as the mountainous subsoil is heavily saturated with water. The young Austrian filmmaker Leonhard Münch visited this village in 2020 and his documentary “süffige Erde:: gebrochener Berg” paints an atmospherically dense and finely observed picture of how the village and its inhabitants deal with the constant transformation of their environment and the threat of a massive landslide. We are very pleased to be able to show this work in our exhibition!
The triple point at Pass Lunghin was in the focus of a field research of the Austrian composer and musician Stefan Fraunberger. He followed the invitation of the #sharingwaterproject and spent a few days in summer 2020 at this specific node point. He perceived it as a “Zone Zero”, a zero point from which the watercourses move constantly transforming, enlarging and “modulating” to the mouth to the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and the North Sea. He has incorporated his experiences in “zone zero” into two audio recordings, improvisations to “Des Baches Wiegenlied” by Franz Schubert.
At the opening of the exhibition on Friday evening artist Barbara Anna Husar was present and spoke about her very special contribution to SHARING WATER . The “Ritual for the Earth” was an artistic action above Pass Lunghin with the hot air balloon “Flying Udder”, which she implemented in March 2022. Inspired by a Tibetan ritual at pass crossings, Barbara Anna Husar collected children’s wishes for the future of the earth and handed them over to the wind and the water while floating above the triple watershed.
The action was a great challenge also for the udder pilot Eugen Nussbaumer, who was personally present at the opening, too. He spoke about the helpful wind from the Sahara, which finally guided the balloon “flying udder” over the triple point with pinpoint accuracy. Healthy animals and forests, air to breathe, clean water, kindness, peace and friendship – the children’s hearts’s desires could be delivered. The “Ritual for the Earth” set a strong impulse at a central hydrological junction in Europe that radiates in all directions.
The exhibition WASSER TEILEN in the Sala Segantini in Savognin was supported by the municipality of Surses, the Office of Culture of the Canton of Graubünden and the Federal Ministry of Art and Culture of the Republic of Austria and can be seen until 26 February 2023.