TURIN 2012
MUSEO REGIONALE DI SCIENZE NATURALI

Hydromemories in Turin was curated by Irina Novarese and A.Titolo, in collaboration with the NGO CISV (Comunitá Impegno Servizio Volontariato) and the Berlin and Turin Engineers without Borders groups, with the aim of gathering funds for CISV's “Rouwa! Water Wells in Niger” program (a total of €655 was raised during the exhibition).

Invited artists:
Felipe Aguila, Silke Bauer & Viola Thiele, Jung-Ki Beak, Daniela Bozzetto, Sabine Delafon, Dominic Hislop, Cynthia Hooper, Zoltan Kunckel, Steve Mc Pherson, Isola & Norzi, Francesco Ozzola, Bhagwati Prasad, Alessandro Quaranta, Riiko Sakkinen, Kinya Shiraishi.

Hydromemories in Turin proposes images and visions of our time. In a space dedicated to research into the natural sciences, the invited artists for the Italian edition of 2012 sought to investigate and challenge themselves and the public to question present-day mythologies, and the meaning and function of water in the dramatic environmental context of these first decades of XXI century.

During the course of the exhibition, meetings with the artists, curators and operators from the CISV and Engineers without Borders were organized.

In collaboration with the PAV (Parco d'Arte Vivente, Turin), Hydromemories was invited to Artissima 19° Contemporary Art Fair, to the panel discussion: Anomalie di Gravitá – A Conversation About the Aesthetic of Climate moderated by Lisa Parola (A.Titolo) and Claudio Cravero (curator at Parco d'Arte Vivente) with the participation of Ettore Favini (artist), Heiko Hansen (artists duo He-He), Irina Novarese and the artists from the Hydromemories Project, Daniele Fazio (agronomist) and Michele Vaglio Iori (CISV).

Workshops for schools on the theme of virtual water, were held by the Associazione ambientale Triciclo.

Partners:
Regione Piemonte
Regional Museum of Natural Sciences, Turin
Goethe-Institut Turin
Korea Arts Council
Artissima 2012, Turin
CISV – Comunitá Impegno Servizio Volontariato, Turin
Engineers Without Borders, Berlin
Engineers Without Borders, Turin
Associazione Ambientale Triciclo, Turin
Institute for Art in Context, UdK, Berlin
A.Titolo - Contemporary Art Projects, Turin

fter the success of the first exhibition in Berlin in 2007, the curator team of Bolivia Chacón and Benjamin Villares in association with the Goethe Institute in Caracas invited the Hydromemories project to be exhibited at the prestigious Museum of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition was included in the frame of “Caracas: City of Water”, a symposium with internationally acclaimed guest speakers and participants organised by Glocal Studio Caracas and the Goethe Institute Caracas. The symposium consisted of 2 days of workshops and a conference discussing solutions to world water problems, at the two largest public universities in Venezuela: Simon Bolivar University and the Unidad Central de Venezuela. The exhibition opened at the start of the symposium and ran a total of 3 months gaining a tremendous response within artistic, educational and journalistic circles. Positive articles were written in almost all of Venezuela’s art and diverse newsprint media, with the topical and educational value of the exhibition further underscored by the decision of many public and private schools to organize guided tours round the gallery for their pupils. The interventions and performances that were part of Hydromemories, but situated outside the gallery in public space were notable in their departure from a more static installation of public art commonly known in Venezuela. The public response to the construction of a ‘beach’ and the creation of a ‘wishing well’ at Plaza Altamira and Plaza Castellana, was enthusiastic and respectful. The obvious enjoyment at both being able to interact with, and therefore become part of the artwork, helped facilitate an exchange between the artists and public, which allowed a non-didactic discussion of the context of the works and an opportunity to spread an awareness of the work of the Engineers Without Borders.