A Human Reconciliation with Water

Who or what is the Pader? Where does it start, where does it end? How is it doing? And how can we think differently about the Pader – from a non-human perspective?

Anne Duk Hee Jordan addresses these questions. In collaboration with researchers, local experts and a school class, a complex work of art consisting of four elements was created.

Using both, artistic and activist methods, they have explored the essence of the Pader: underwater sounds recorded using hydrophones and translated into sound compositions make audible what is inaudible to us humans. Close-up shots of the water of the Pader show tiny creatures that are invisible to us but are a key factor in the ecological balance of the river. With the help of the chemistry course and data collected by the city, Anne Duk Hee Jordan created a »blood test« of the Pader, which shows, for example, the oxygen content and pollutants.

A film, a vinyl record, an artist’s book, and two billboards and posters along the river make this artistic research accessible in a different ways. Together with a lawyer, Anne Duk Hee Jordan has also developed a contract. It provides for the formation of a committee during the exhibition’s run that will work towards the river’s well-being and, in the long term, towards granting the river its own legal rights. The contract is
a call to recognise the river in all its aspects, to continue researching
it and to take responsibility for its ecological health.