RUMBLING WATERS is a video presenting the slow motion capture of three earthenware jars filled with water, exploding one after the other under the impact of a revolver bullet. This work follows the artist’s long-standing interest in deserts and arid places around the world, more specifically in North and South America, where he has initiated several collaborations with indigenous communities around issues such as the lack of water and access to land.
Water is the prerequisite for all forms of desert life. In the arid south part of USA, water supplied by the mountains and the rivers is an integral part of the culture and spirituality of Native American tribes. In this region, where water was once seized with revolvers, its commercialization is still the object of intense covetousness today. The appropriation of a resource for its exploitation is thus opposed by a different relationship to the land, an integral part of indigenous cultures. In a radical gesture, RUMBLING WATERS evokes the intrinsic link between a resource and the emancipation of a culture, or conversely, its disappearance. In the video, the jars are broken but remain upright despite the impact of the shock. Filmed in slow motion and presented in a loop, this video talks about the unspeakable aggression, barely perceptible but nonetheless violent. Its looped presentation seems to suggest that history is imperturbably repeating itself.
