For their final presentation, the winners of the STARTS4Water challenge—The Future of High Waters: Geo-engineering Solutions for the Venetian Lagoon—Leonor Serrano Rivas and Diego Delas, conceived a 10 min performance and an expedition into the underwater worlds of the Venice Lagoon and its canals, Breathings of the Moon.
Before the performance, the artistic duo talked with Gražina Subelyté, Associate Curator at Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, about their creative process and research during the residency. The conversation took place in the cloister at Ocean Space in Venice on June 21st, on the occasion of the Becoming Fresh & Salty Drops (of water) festival.
During the talk, artists revealed their interests in natural magic, a juncture between the arts, magic, philosophy and early science: “[…] instead of digging into science, we proposed a step before and imagination as a methodology through the lens of ‘Magia Naturalis’ to rethink the lagoon system and give its waters agency and a voice.”