Bilbao Art Foundation
Water Records project - 2015
The project carried out during the Residence researches water as a measure of time, establishing a relationship with the Bilbao river. The investigation focuses on its route, distance, shape and flow, to manufacture a piece of ceramic, bronze and wood, which represents a section of the river, precisely in the La Peña sector, Bilbao. The piece is a circuit of pipes made by means of plaster molds, joined by copper clamps and supported by wooden towers. Like a roof-tile system, liquid flows downhill by gravity; water extracted from the river circulates inside the piece so that the fluid, with its systematic route, stains the interior of the earthenware without glazing, functioning as a temporary clock that stains the ceramic as the water circulates through within the circuit. The water descends gravitationally thanks to an Arduino electronic system, which controls a solenoid valve and a water pump. The pump takes from the 10 liter container to fill the discharge drum, stopping to make way for the opening of the Solenoid for 6 minutes. It has also been filmed with a waterproof camera, below the surface of the river and the sea. These underwater images bring an aqueous medium to representation, different to ours, destabilizing space.