Lagua
Lagua desde Mexico D.F. The first day in September 2001 I came to Mexico City, I read in the newspaper about a flood in a suburban part of Mexico-City. The color photo showed two men being busy in their kitchen, the floor under water, up to their knees! This image is in many ways the premise for the comic book "Lagua". People start living with a catastrophe, trying to keep up with their normal lives.Mexico-City is the largest metropolis in the Americas and could be a setting for 'Apocalypse Now'. The Aztec town was build originally in a lake on a high volcanic mountain plateau. The drinking water supply today means a big effort of a circulating network, in tubes, canals, even on trucks, but it is in constant danger to dry up. With only one major tube leading all the wasted waters through a range of mountains, the area is a bowl without a plug. What happens if the water comes flowing back into the city? How long can you stay under water? How long can you survive without water? Superpower "Lagua" connects the city with the bodies of the citizens. The first appearance of the female superpower is experienced only as a small flood growing stronger and stronger. Her wanderings through the city, reflecting, bubbling and washing through the city, is changing Mexico City into a transitory water world. The takeover happens in streets, public places, homes: citizens encounter the superpower and start living in it's watery substance. Lagua resembles the artist herself, an alien and a wanderer through city life.
Research and concept of the scenes: my research of the photo documentation of Mexico-City was done for of the AGUA /WASSER show, organized and sponsored by the Goethe Institut and the MUCA in January 2002. It is based on areas, sites, streets, where catastrophes are possible or have happened, based on the extremes of a water household of the Megapolis.
Lagua desde Mexico D.F. The first day in September 2001 I came to Mexico City, I read in the newspaper about a flood in a suburban part of Mexico-City. The color photo showed two men being busy in their kitchen, the floor under water, up to their knees! This image is in many ways the premise for the comic book "Lagua". People start living with a catastrophe, trying to keep up with their normal lives.Mexico-City is the largest metropolis in the Americas and could be a setting for 'Apocalypse Now'. The Aztec town was build originally in a lake on a high volcanic mountain plateau. The drinking water supply today means a big effort of a circulating network, in tubes, canals, even on trucks, but it is in constant danger to dry up. With only one major tube leading all the wasted waters through a range of mountains, the area is a bowl without a plug. What happens if the water comes flowing back into the city? How long can you stay under water? How long can you survive without water? Superpower "Lagua" connects the city with the bodies of the citizens. The first appearance of the female superpower is experienced only as a small flood growing stronger and stronger. Her wanderings through the city, reflecting, bubbling and washing through the city, is changing Mexico City into a transitory water world. The takeover happens in streets, public places, homes: citizens encounter the superpower and start living in it's watery substance. Lagua resembles the artist herself, an alien and a wanderer through city life.
Research and concept of the scenes: my research of the photo documentation of Mexico-City was done for of the AGUA /WASSER show, organized and sponsored by the Goethe Institut and the MUCA in January 2002. It is based on areas, sites, streets, where catastrophes are possible or have happened, based on the extremes of a water household of the Megapolis.
