World Changing
March 15, 2007
By Katie Kurtz
Ben Franklin once said, “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” It’s a statement that resonates well with this year’s World Water Day theme, Coping With Water Scarcity. The annual event, which falls on March 22, focuses this time on integrated resource management and the ethical, social, and cultural factors involved in dealing equitably with a global crisis.
In addition to the practical and policy elements presented through World Water Day (some of which are displayed in the PDF booklet surveying international commitments and goals for 2015), there are some more conceptual and artistic projects on exhibition around the globe that are worth a mention. Several recent projects explore the scarcity of water and its shifting conditions as a result of climate change.
Miami, Florida
Standing in Miami heat picturing the subzero Antarctic seems unimaginable – but this is the premise Xavier Cortada uses to show the neighborly aspect of global warming. A series of photographs documenting projects by Cortada in the Antarctic are currently on view at Kunsthaus Contemporary Art Space in Miami. Cortada used a different system of markings for each project to illuminate relationships between the Antarctic and sites elsewhere. Longitudinal Installation uses pairs of shoes to show how people may live across the world from each other but still share a longitudinal line.