embodying maas — Ciska Daalder

CISKA DAALDER

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Embodying Maas

What does it mean to embody water? Based on the theories of Astrida Neimanis, Sena and I (re)imagined what a monument could be & what monumentalizing water, the Maas river could mean.

Our collaboration resulted in a booklet exploring the maas as fluid entity through poems & hydrofeminism.

//Monumentalizing the Maas means to protect it and record it as of great significance, highlighting that we should step away from our human centred world, focussing on the broader planet ecology. By choosing a body of water as our monument we wanted to zoom out of human bodies, shifting our perspective to a body of water and in doing so our bodies of water.//

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO EMBODY WATER?

Water has the ability to flow and erode the borders of social binaries. It flows through social, political, philosophical and environmental issues: water pollution, climate change, capitalism, imperialism, industrial waste, fresh drinking water, medicine residues, amniotic life, poverty, drought, colonialism, disease, food, biotic life, femicide, floods, water quality, exploitation, gender inequality, soil degradation, animal ethics, etc.

Are we not all bodies of water?

We would like to introduce you to hydrofeminism, the practice of embodying water (Neimanis Astrida, Bodies of Water). We are all bodies of water, dynamic and fluid. Our supposed closed bodies are always in conversation with water. Water passes through us, becoming part of us, then later parting ways, alongside medicines and other bodily fluids.

Realising we are all bodies of water, and with “We” meaning all beings on earth, it becomes clear how closely tied together all living beings are in this planet's ecosystem. We should be in solidarity across our watery bodies. Hydrofeminism calls for accountability about our shared survival, pushing at the borders of the ideas of intersectional feminism.

//video still to come//

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