As part of the first iteration of our ‘school of water’, we invite you to join us for a series of events navigating rivers, dams and other in-land waterscapes as sites where both the politics and poetics of mobility, memory, sound, and landscape’s trans/formation come to play.

This evening includes a lecture by artist, writer, and inter-disciplinary researcher Ifor Duncan on the politics of culturally contested water ecosystems beginning at 5.00 pm, followed by a screening and conversation with performance, film, and media artist Noor Abed on the emancipatory power of ‘folklore’ beginning at 6.30 pm. This event will finish at 8.00pm.

This event is part of the Confluence project.

5.00pm | Hydrology of the Powerless (Weaponising a River) | with Ifor Duncan

Framed by the concept Hydrology of the Powerless, whereby watery ecosystems are physically and culturally contested by both extractive and violent actors and by those resisting and practicing alternative ways of living with water, this collaborative media lecture (with Dr Stefanos Levidis) focuses on the case of the Evros, Meriç, Martisa river – “land” border between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria – and its production as a border technology. From its main course to its delta, this fluvial frontier is weighted with the crossings of asylum seekers and systematic pushbacks. The river-border technology incorporates the entire hydrology of the river ecosystem, from the deadly velocities of the central course, through its muds, fogs, and flood defence walls that mark the military buffer zone that surrounds it (Zoni Asfaleias Prokalypsis (ZAP). State impunity is in part produced by the ZAP’s enfolding of the excess of floodwaters into the excesses of sovereign territorial power.

6.30pm | our songs were ready for all the wars to come | with Noor Abed

Choreographed scenes based on documented folktales from Palestine, our songs were ready for all the wars to come (Noor Abed, 2021, super 8mm film, 20’) aims to create a new aesthetic form to re-awaken latent stories based around water wells and their connection to communal rituals around notions of disappearance, mourning, and death. our songs were ready for all the wars to come explores the critical stance of ‘folklore’ as a source of knowledge, and it’s possible connection to alternative social and representational models in Palestine. How can ‘folklore’ become a common emancipatory tool for people to overturn dominant discourses, reclaim their history and land, and rewrite reality as they know it?

Captured through mediums of film and sound, situated stories are archived and represented, creating a context that explores the capacity of social formation, and the possibility of recalling a memory that is capable of decentralizing images of fixity; a memory that is liberated from monuments.

Registration or pre-booking is not required for this event, simply open CCA Annex at 5.00pm (UK time) on your browser, however please feel free to register for event reminders.

Questions will be invited from the audience who can participate over CCA Annex. This event will be live-captioned and recorded.