Annalisa Brambilla
Fluid Borders : The Gurani Aquifer

2011
photography

The Guarani Aquifer is a vast groundwater reserve that lies beneath Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. It reportedly contains enough fresh water to sustain the world’s current population for 200 years yet, despite the enormous potential of this body of water, it is surprisingly little known, even by those living locally. Annalisa purposely chose to travel to areas in Argentina where the boundary between the surface above and the Aquifer below is most porous to investigate scenes of daily life. Significantly, many of these locations correspond to borders between the four countries that share this natural resource- and therefore the crucial, though not always straightforward, task of protecting it.

By capturing micro-narratives of the lives of local inhabitants around the Aquifer, Annalisa convincingly illustrates the many ways in which communal life everywhere is both consciously and unconsciously dependant on the presence of water. For example, her images of outraged environmental protestors contrasted against children peacefully playing along a shoreline demonstrate the extremes of emotion evoked by the presence of water.

Link to the artists website