S+T+ARTS Residency: Flow of Berlin

S+T+ARTS Residency

Flow of Berlin

Click the image to learn more about the S+T+ARTS Residency challenge.

Meet the Local Expert Group

Each consortium partner has gathered a Local Expert Group involving local and regional digital experts, scientists, leaders, entrepreneurs and art professionals. Participants have been chosen from all walks of life: business, politics, civil society, academia, arts, media.
The Regional S+T+ARTS Centers have set up meetings with their Local Expert Groups to receive their support and expertise in designing the open call and the development and production phase of the residencies. Through the involvement and engagement of their Local Expert Groups, partners aim to expand the opportunities for interaction and collaborative action at the regional, national, and global levels.

Artists-in-Residence

Studio Lapatsch|Unger and Johanna Schmeer are the artists-in-residence for the S+T+ARTS Residency "Flow of Berlin“. Together they created the artwork Bodies of Water.

Bodies of Water

Bodies of water directly relate to our human bodies. Our bodies contain 60% water and it is through drinking water and ingesting food grown with this water, that we ingest and swallow the world around us – and with it its nutrients, microorganisms, and contaminants.

How can we create more awareness around water and its regional origins?

Bodies of Water is a geohydrological investigation into Berlin's regional groundwater systems and their specific qualities and challenges. The project explores the complexities that lie beneath the city, providing artifacts that allow for a new perspective onto the groundwater reservoir shapes and geological elements that impact our everyday lives but often remain invisible. 

The first part of the project is based upon state-of-the-art scientific research into groundwater, where Berlin receives almost 100% of its drinking water from. The data of two dimensional geological sections of the city was interpreted and translated into sculptural glass vessels that visualize the three dimensional shapes of Berlin’s groundwater reservoirs.

Credit: Studio Lapatsch | Unger, Johanna Schmeer

Installation view, :REWORLD at MEET Digital Culture Centre in Milan, Credit: Stefan Grosjean

The second part gives an insight into the aquifers beneath the earth's surface – the water-bearing permeable rock that filters sediment and other particles (like bacteria) and provides natural purification of the groundwater flowing through it over centuries. The artwork uses specific rocks from the geological layers beneath the city of Berlin to change the water quality of other waters into water, that has a mineral content and taste similar to Berlin water.

This project is realized by Studio Johanna Schmeer & Studio Lapatsch|Unger and co-commissioned by STATE with the support of the RISE Cities Program of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt and the STARTS program of the European Union.

Bodies of Water is exhibited in the S+T+ARTS exhibition series Repairing the Present :REWORLD (at MEET Digital Culture Centre in Milan from 4-30 October), :REWILD (at MAXXI the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome from 15 October - 13 November) and :RETOOL (at ZKM | Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe from 18 November - 18 December).

More information: www.starts.eu/what-we-do/regional-centers/repairing-the-present-exhibitions/