72 per cent of the world's freshwater consumption is used for operations related to food production, while 16 per cent is expended on energy as well as for the manufacturing of goods. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of the world's population remains affected by water scarcity. Only 11 per cent of the world’s treated wastewater is reused and around half of the wastewater generated enters rivers, lakes and seas. It is estimated that two billion people in the world have no access to clean drinking water—recognised as a human right—and around 1.5 billion people do not have basic sanitation facilities. These facts, presented with the official release for the ongoing exhibition at Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (MK&G) Water Pressure —curated by Jane Withers Studio—hardly seem surprising. But the question is, what do the numbers truly entail? The ongoing water crisis is, after all, not a crisis of statistics, but of the people these numbers represent.

If anything, the numbers ought to serve as an imperative for us to act on an issue affecting our one fundamental need. Moreover, while the statistics presented above may appear to be anthropocentric, as recent scholarship has sought to bring to light, our water-y bodies intrinsically connect us to our natural environments and the non-human. A natural crisis affects everyone and ought to be looked at in a holistic manner—one that accounts not only for the present but for the future of all planetary beings. In this vein, the design exhibition—on view from March 15 - October 13, 2024—delves into proposals across design, science and activism to challenge our prevailing responses (or lack thereof) to the crisis. As Withers emphasises in the official release, many of the displayed works also look to traditional knowledge systems and climate responsive designs, not only as an alternative way of being but to foreground and shape more resilient water cultures.  

75 contributions from designers, artists and practitioners from geographies as varied as Mexico to Slovenia reiterate the idea of interconnection and finding solidarities across cultures; including DeToXiFy (India); KWR Water Research Institute (the Netherlands); Fernando Laposse (Mexico); Marjetica Potrč (Slovenia); raumlaborberlin (Germany); NLÉ Architects (Nigeria and The Netherlands); SCAPE Landscape Architecture (USA); Sungai Watch (Indonesia); Synchronicity Earth (UK); Taller Capital (Mexico); and Waiwai (UAE).

The museum also brings together perspectives from different eras and cultures through objects taken from the MK&G collections and other local institutions. Notably, a large-scale mural by OOZE Architects, Re-imagine Water Flows (2024) depicts the water systems that govern the MK&G building, connecting it to the city of Hamburg and the Elbe River basin. By zooming in on the specific ways in which water affects the building while proposing potential interventions towards a climate-resilient future, it explicitly demonstrates the various scales of interrogation in the showcase.

Within the exhibition space, the first section, Water Stories, fosters not only an understanding of water’s place in culture and the ecosystem but also introduces the notion of the autonomy of natural bodies/systems. One only needs to pay attention to the increasing intensity of natural disasters and the destruction they leave in their wake to reconcile the idea of an autonomous nature. To this end, the next section, Bodily Waters, further underscores the interconnection between bodies of water, watery bodies and bodily waters. Projects use science and technology to remark on all living beings’ relationship with water but also suggest alternatives to outdated systems of its dissemination, such as Helsinki-based The Dry Collective’s Death to the Flushing Toilet (2023), which takes a traditional Finnish huussi or a dry composting toilet as a sustainable model.

In the third section, Thirsty Cites, inequalities in accessing water or the threats posed by natural disasters, particularly relevant for developing countries facing heedless urbanisation, are expanded on. From sustainable designs and alternative practices that harvest rain such as the Enghaveparken Climate Park in Copenhagen or Mexico-based Isla Urbana’s harvesting system; to proposals that clean wastewater with plants; to NLÉ Architects' floating architecture, the chapter spotlights the relevance of indigenous knowledge—which foregrounds the delicate balance between humans and nature—to the contemporary moment.

Ecosystems: Land and Ocean presents perspectives of policymakers and designers working to restore the balance between humans and nature, such as in SCAPE Landscape Architecture’s Living Breakwaters which devised manmade structures to help restore the reefs off the Hudson River. Finally, Invisible Water showcases new technologies being developed that embrace circular principles, using less water and mitigating pollution. The works and practices on display not only critically examine humanity’s relationship to a vital resource, but add a multiplicity of perspectives to the issue; from our entanglements with the natural world to (un)intended (after)effects of human progress. More importantly, underscoring the lived realities of local communities and their responses to a pervasive condition, the exhibition offers a sense of hope.

Thinking with water cultures and the non-human and thinking through practices that champion traditional knowledge systems and alternative ways of being, STIR spoke to the curator of the compelling showcase, Jane Withers, and the Director of the MK&G and industrial designer, Tulga Beyerle.  The conversation explores the idea of resilience, action, sustainability and building solidarities with each other and the natural world.

Mrinmayee Bhoot: Could you tell us how and where the idea first came about on curating and putting together a show focusing on responses to the water crisis?

Jane Withers: I’ve been interested in water and water cultures—you could say obsessed—for as long as I can remember. However, the first exhibition focusing on the water crisis and design’s response was 1% Water & Our Future at Z33, Belgium co-curated with Ilse Crawford in 2009. In fact, 1% had quite a bit in common with Water Pressure. The premise for both is that many of the ways we manage water no longer make sense in an age of scarcity and we need to find alternatives to outdated practices. But the big difference between the two shows is that back then we could not find much content for the section on contemporary responses to the crisis, whereas in Water Pressure this is the focus of the exhibition—at least 80 per cent is devoted to projects that transform how we manage and think about water. I find this inspiring and hopeful, so much has happened in a decade and a half and there are many innovative ideas and solutions to the water crisis out there. Now we need people to really get behind them.

Tulga Beyerle: Starting in the year 2021, the issue of water seemed to become more pressing than I was ever aware of before. I couldn’t tell you a specific moment, but I started collecting articles and reached out to Jane probably in 2022 because I knew she was an expert in that field. In general not only as director of the museum, but much more so because I have been in the field of design for decades; it is my true belief that the discipline of design cannot save the world, but can make it better. So I was interested to understand what kind of projects are trying to solve problems around the question of water.

Mrinmayee: The showcase focuses on natural principles and working with traditional or vernacular knowledge to address the water crisis. Was this a conscious choice? How did it develop through the research or responses you received?

Jane: Yes, very much so. Throughout our research, we came across projects that were revisiting nature-based systems, traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous values systems as a point of departure for contemporary innovation and this is foregrounded in the exhibition. Good examples are City of 1000 Tanks in Chennai by Ooze Architects proposing a dynamic urban landscape that restores the city’s historic tanks and connects them with canals, rivers and a new green network designed to capture and clean rainwater in the city and recharge over-abstracted groundwater reserves. Or Eden in Iraq, a project led by Meridel Rubenstein and Dr Davide Tocchetto to create a garden that uses plants in a constructed wetland to clean wastewater from a community in Iraq’s Mesopotamian Marshes on the floodplain of the Euphrates River.

Mrinmayee: The idea of working with nature also brings to mind one of the chapters in the exhibition which talks about water as a living being. This could be related to hydrofeminist philosophies that look at water as a way of imagining solidarities with the non-human. In that light, could you perhaps comment on the role design can play in relearning or rethinking our relationship with water?

Jane: This holistic understanding is very important. I love this quote from Yoko Ono’s song We’re All Water, "We're all water from different rivers, That's why it's so easy to meet/We're all water in this vast, vast ocean, Someday we'll evaporate together." It reminds me that humans and non-humans are all connected through water, it's the universal medium that supports life.

A deeper connection to water is a good starting point for building resilience. Large-scale centralised infrastructure has concealed water in culverted rivers, underground sewers and buried pipes – it is piped invisibly in and out of our lives. Out of sight, out of mind. Instead, many of the projects here take a different stance, celebrating water and making it a visible part of our lives and environment.

Mrinmayee: There is an overt link in the exhibition between science, design and activism. In what ways is this connection and line of thought helpful in addressing, or at least acknowledging the water crisis?

Jane: Governments and corporations have been slow to respond to the water crisis - look at the miscarriage of justice in the case of lead pollution in Flint, Michigan documented by LaToya Ruby Frazier or the current parlous state of the UK waterways caused by water companies illegally dumping sewage and agricultural pollution. Activism can be an effective catalyst for raising awareness and sparking change. For sure we need systemic change at scale, but this is slow to happen. Building awareness through grassroots projects is important in inspiring agency and showing that alternatives are possible.

Mrinmayee: There was a phrase in the press release that particularly interested me: water justice. Could you maybe highlight some of the contributors who add to this idea and the role their interventions take? 

Jane:The preliminary section of the design exhibition, Water Stories is framed by a magnificent wall drawing Time on The Lachlan River by artist and activist Marjetica Potrč. It illustrates the campaign by Australia's Aboriginal Wiradjuri people to prevent the enlargement of a damn that could have deprived the land downriver of water. Potrč calls for a new understanding of water and recognition of its rights as a living being. This shift in thinking about rivers and how we view them not as objects to be exploited but as subjects with their own rights is fundamental to creating a more equitable water culture and sets the tone for the exhibition.

Another example is The Mirror Shield Project – a film by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger documenting a performance by Water Protectors, their mirrored shields creating a beautiful serpentine river of light reflecting the sacred life of the river and the motto, “Water is Life” (“Mni Wiconi”). The Water Protectors are grassroots activists focused on defending the world’s water and water systems, the movement arose from protests at the Standing Rock Reservation against the Dakota Access Pipeline believed by many to seriously threaten the region’s water.

Activism can be an effective catalyst for raising awareness and sparking change. Building awareness through grassroots projects is important in inspiring agencies to act.

Mrinmayee: The scale of the projects on display is particularly interesting. There’s one that looks at human tears, while another one looks at hydroelectric projects. When dealing with something as pervasive as the water crisis, what scales do we operate on? Where do we start building resilience?

Jane: This feeling for how water pervades every aspect of our lives and the environment is important – from a human tear to clouds, from the rhizome to the ocean. Change needs to happen across different scales. Systemic change is critical if we are to tackle this crisis, but local, even individual action is important to shift our consciousness and help shape a new water culture.

Mrinmayee: The showcase also gives you a sense of hope that resilience is possible. But to build on the educational role of an exhibition like this, how do you think exhibitions like this can play into inspiring collective action?

Jane: I’ve always seen the exhibition itself as a starting point, hopefully, it inspires exchange and debate. So the programming around it is really important. At MK&G there is a section showing citizens how they can engage with local and global water issues and the Freiraum team who are responsible for the programming are taking events out into the city and engaging with local communities. The exhibition is touring to Museum für Gestaltung Zürich and MAK in Vienna, so I hope these conversations will snowball. If we are to tackle the crisis, water has to become a universal conversation, we all have to care.

Tulga: I believe in many ways we as an institution have to react to pressing questions of the present and near future, especially as a design museum. We cannot “just” have an interesting programme, we are players and experts who can inspire and hopefully have an impact on our direct surroundings.

'Water Pressure' is on view at Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg until October 13, 2024.