An interdisciplinary North to South expedition along the water.

The central theme of the long-term project “Overtures” – organised by the Munich-based art forum Artcircolo – is “Resources”: meaning “Approaches” and “Food for Thought” in which the artists, curators, scientists, economists and media specialists are all equally involved. At the core of the interdisciplinary dialogue is the primal element water, without which life on Earth would be unthinkable. Water is reflected on from scientific, economic, artistic and ecological points of view, with the visionary aim of initiating a change in values that will make life worth living for generations to come as well.

Following stops after the premiere in 2000 in Gelsenkirchen (2002) and Munich (2005), from 13th to 20th October the interdisciplinary caravan moved on to Iceland, the northernmost country in Europe, with the largest riches in water. Partners of that “kick-off”-journey was the CIA.IS - Center for Icelandic Art in cooperation with the Embassy of Iceland in Berlin.

From a standard of living point of view, Iceland is the third richest country in the world – a fact that is surely attributable to its abundance of water. The central topic of investigation during the third “Overtures” project was the relationship between Icelanders and water: The participants met with economically-minded and environmentally critical Icelanders, geologists, representatives of the energy industry and artists like Rúrí, who very effectively drew attention to the invasion of Icelandic Nature at the 2003 Biennial in Venice with her work “Endangered Waters”, making herself very unpopular with the government and proponents of unobstructed exploitation of resources. The circuit contained hydroelectric power plants, energy agencies, waterfalls, geysers, galleries and museums, making visible the full spectrum of opportunities and potential dangers presented by Iceland’s water riches.

Embedded in Sequences festival, Berkan Karpat and Kalle Laar, both artists from Germany and members of the “Overtures” group, presented some aspects of their works. Berkan Karpat showed in a lecture demonstration how he worked for the performance “Tears of Hiob”, and DJ Kalle Laar invited to a Liquid Lounge at Hotel Nordica where also the video piece “Dschini” – a collaboration between the German artists Sabine Haubitz, Stefanie Zoche with the Icelandic band Amiina – was presented. A wide range of film shortcuts under the title “What about WATER“, composed and organized by ARTCIRCOLO and CIA.IS - Center for Icelandic Art, was shown at Tjarnabíó.

The interdisciplinary dialogue on the respective water situations will be continued in 2007 in Upper Bavaria and in Turkey. The preliminary final destination of the expedition is drought-stricken Spain, in which the 2008 EXPO in Saragossa will be dedicated explicitly to the topic “Water as a Resource. Facets of the experience collected during the Overtures expedition from North to South will be presented at the EXPO 2008 in an exhibition that will also demonstrate the bridging of art and science.