︎︎︎ THE WATER FRONTS
march 17 to may 25, 2025
The subsoil of Madrid is full of bodies of water, some of which still flow underground and others that have disappeared from the territory and from the stories. What does the disappearance of these bodies of water, their histories and the communities that inhabit them imply? The name of the project comes from the Water Front at the Puentes Viejas and El Villar reservoirs during the Civil War, where the Republican resistance defended Madrid's main water source from attacks by the fascist army for almost two years. What can this history teach us about today's water crises, when the earth is plunged into increasingly intense droughts and floods? Where are the water fronts where water management models are now being disputed?
To address these questions, Juan Pablo Pacheco* proposed a Riso-printed editorial project with images, essays, poems and invitations to reflect on the relationships between water, territorial and spiritual sovereignt in Madrid. The publication was launched with a picnic/activation on 15 May, coinciding with the feast day of San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid, which is closely linked to water due to the tradition of drinking the miraculous water that flows from the spring next to the saint's chapel. Later, at the end of the residency, a final public opening was held, where Juan Pablo and thenattendees cooked a fish stew and a collective reading of the publication took place.
Final publication:
San Isidro Activation
may 15, 2025
︎︎︎ Public opening ‘THE FRONTS OF WATER’
may 25, 2025
*Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano is an artist, writer and educator from Colombia, recently settled in Madrid. Through texts, audiovisual installations and workshops, his work delves into situated ecologies, political history and technological infrastructures surrounding different bodies of water. His projects weave together poetic relationships based on (in)disciplinary and collaborative research to expand how we relate to water from critical and emancipatory perspectives. Juan Pablo has worked as a cultural manager at Espacio Odeón and Plataforma Bogotá in Colombia, where he has also been an adjunct professor at the Javeriana and Andes universities in Bogotá. In 2023, he was a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands, and at Danube University in Austria. His work has recently been exhibited at Intermediae Matadero, Madrid (2024); the Institute for Postnatural Studies, Madrid (2023); Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2023); Porto Design Biennial with TBA-21, Porto (2023); La MaMa, New York (2023); Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels (2022); ISEA International Symposium on Electronic Arts, Barcelona (2022); International Image Festival, Manizales (2021); Galería Santa Fe, Bogotá (2020); Transmediale, Berlin (2020); Ural Biennale, Yekaterinburg (2020); Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico (2019); among others.
www.juanpablopacheco.com