|
The Danube Sinkhole in the Upper Danube Nature Park is a unique phenomenon. The Danube, one of Germany’s biggest rivers, here behaves like an ordinary river only in the spring after heavy rains. During this time it is visible and accessible as "living water"; flowing, not stagnant, and used for ritual purifications in several religions. In the dry summer months, the river water seeps through the porous ground, it disappears and flows invisibly through an underground cave system. On the surface, you can walk with dry feet in the riverbed for approximately 12 km/7.5 miles.
 
Danube full of water 2013-06-05 Danube when drying 2013-07-08
Almost half of the population on earth does not have enough water. About one billion people have no access to clean drinking water. During the time when the Danube flows underground, the riverbed resembles one of the dried-up rivers around the world. In Germany, we are one of the rich industrial countries with enough water. The Sinkhole phenomenon only looks like what constitutes a severe problem for humans and ecology elsewhere.
I filled the glasses, as if presenting the water to drink in a (seemingly) dried up river.
  
When the Danube was high with spring rains, I bottled some of the flowing water and stored it. After some hot summer days, the Danube started to recede and the riverbed became visible. Snails, little fishes, and other creatures struggled as the water drew back. Just a few days later, life came to a transitory end, surviving like eggs in a desert and waiting for the river to be reborn.
I placed glasses in a long and curved line on the stony ground and poured the stored water into them, remembering that we usually drink bottled, no longer “living”, water. I returned the Danube water to its original place, yet caught inside the glasses, it could not seep into the ground. But as before, the water still interacted with the surrounding nature. The relentless sun that had made the flowing water disappear now reflected on the conserved water. Its rays played on the surface and beneath the water, and cast reflections on the surrounding stones.
When I placed stones in the glasses, they became vividly colored again, casting their hues to light the entire glass with reflections. Then I poured the remaining water from the bottles over the convoluted set of glasses, bringing back to the place, in that moment, the movement of living water. Finally, I emptied the glasses and the spilled water found its way through the cracks in the dry surface to the flowing underground river. Allowed to merge with the water flowing below: it was revived. In the riverbed, nothing remained other than a dark-colored trace, which soon disappeared under the sun.
Here I am exploring the phenomenon of a delay, a time shift. I removed water from its natural course - it should have disappeared underground. Temporarily placed inside the glasses, the water gave back its reflections and returned color to the stones. In the end it was allowed to merge with the river where it belonged.
|
