[text Luca Bertocci, Sapienza University of Rome]
PartArt4OW is pleased to announce the release of a new video-documentary and photographic reportage documenting the intense and compelling work of the first six Participatory Art Initiatives (PAIs) funded by the European Commission via PartArt4OW projectand presented on the occasion of the PartArt4OW First Demo Day, which took place in February in Badalona (see https://partart4ow.eu/demo-days).
The video-documentary and the photographic reportage produced by the project partner Raw-News Agency offer an engaging narrative glimpse into PartArt4OW philosophy and methodological perspective for supporting European local communities’ commitment toward major oceanic and internal water-related problems, while triggering creative understanding and awareness-raising practices.
[photo Giuseppe Lupinacci]
The first Demo Day in Badalona marked a key milestone for the project, creating a shared space for exchange, visibility, and connection around the first cohort of PAIs. The newly released audiovisual and photographic materials capture the energy of that gathering while also amplifying the diversity of practices, territories, and communities involved in the cohort. Notably, together with an overview of the PartArt4OW presented via partners’ voice, the visual releases highlight the first six PAIs currently featured on the PartArt4OW website: Art of the Dredge (Luleå, Sweden), Kyiv Whale Eco Hub (Kyiv, Ukraine), Seatizen Bio Murals (Brzeźno, Gdańsk, Poland), Tidal Orchards (Loch Eishort, Isle of Skye, Scotland), Posidonia Art Reef (Bogliasco, Liguria, Italy), and Sea of Sounds (Bodø, Norway). Selected after a highly competitive first open call that received 434 applications from across Europe, the six PAIs selected represent bold, creative, and community-driven responses to the challenges facing seas, rivers, and water basins. The projects span a wide range of artistic and participatory approaches, from multimedia explorations of dredging and interactive eco-hubs to bio-murals, living sea gardens, underwater art reefs, and immersive VR experiences centred on ocean soundscapes (see https://partart4ow.eu/pais).
[photo Giuseppe Lupinacci]
The video-documentary and the catalogue show how PartArt4OW’s approach is strongly materialist. They demonstrate how organic material – when artificially transformed – can serve as the fundamental vehicle for forging stronger emotional and artistic connections with the ocean, the very place from which that material originated. In this way, the project established a positive and virtuous relationship between human and non-human natures. The oriented activity and creative intelligence of the artists mediated the interaction with and released the creative potential of non-human natures. For example, virtual reality technology – when mediated through participatory and artistic processes – has served as an excellent vehicle for bringing human society closer to the unseen life of the seas. This revealed that emotional attachment to the ocean, in order to be more than just a metaphor or a slogan, requires a physical infrastructure to support it.
Accordingly, the video-documentary and the catalogue show how liminal ocean spaces – such as those between tides, often perceived as lacking clear reference points – may emerge as a fertile and inhabitable environment where interspecies life can thrive. The same goes for the many human-made infrastructures spanning the sea that PartArt4OW has made visible, highlighting the intertwining of life forms and materials through which human society and the ocean coexist, co-produce and clash.
[photo Giuseppe Lupinacci]
Ultimately, the audio-video materials released here demonstrate how nature can be positively recreated through art, technology, and human intervention to restore biodiversity and the marine environment. This was achieved by blending the languages of art and science through participatory processes. These made, as in the case of Kyiv Whale Ecohub, a symbolic form of waste (plastic) – to be transformed into the very opposite of trash. Participatory art has thus succeeded in profoundly subverting these meanings, revealing that the ontology of a material is not static and given, but constantly changing and dependent on creative action.
By showcasing both the initiatives and the event, the reportage supports PartArt4OW’s wider dissemination efforts and helps make visible the ways in which artists, scientists, citizens, and local organisations are working together through participatory art to address pressing water-related challenges across Europe. This aligns with the project’s broader mission to support participatory art initiatives connected to ocean and water basin challenges through its accelerator programme.
The video-documentary and photographic coverage are publicly available through PartArt4OW and partners channels:
LINK VIDEO YOUTUBE RAW + PARTART
LINK TO CATALOGUE ONLINE ON PARTART
LINK NEWS on PARTARTWEBSITE
PRESS RELEASE
Chiara Certoma' 