Artistic participation project along the river Dijle with designer Annelys de Vet (PhD candidate ARIA) & Leen Maes (consultant De Natuuracademie). With Sint Lucas Antwerpen s & Natuurpunt, Spring – Winter 2024
Voices from the Drought is an artistic participatory project focusing on alternative forms of water management. Through guided walks in one of Belgium’s most beautiful nature reserves (along the Dijle River), local and international nature enthusiasts—with lived experiences of drought and flooding—have explored and depicted various perspectives on water and drought. Perspectives were drawn from dried-up lakes in Mexico to vanished rivers in Isfahan and from the dykes in the Netherlands to the water bomb in Wallonia, emphasising the formative force water has on all of us. De Vet facilitated the sharing of these narratives during site-specific, hands-on workshops, where participants sketched specific water structures they grew up with, painted wet details using water from the Dijle, created dry landscapes in a herbarium, and wrote personal water biographies about how water had shaped their lives.
The project aims to contribute to a more culturally inclusive and visually rich discourse on drought, flooding, and climate change.
A selection of the ‘dry landscapes’ is presented for the first time at the SLARG research exhibition, followed by an exhibition at the Public Library in Oud Heverlee in January.
Herbaria:
[1] ’Savannah, when a meadow becomes dry’, Annelies Haesevoets
[2] ‘Biodiversity, the green garden’, Mohammad Arif
[3] ’Symmetrical pine forest, why in rows anyway’, Annelys de Vet
[4] 'Forest, mountain path’ Heejeong Ko
[5] 'The dead leaves, love don’t fear me’, Wander Rooze
See: https://www.instagram.com/stemmenuitdedroogte/