As we step into the space, we are encircled by a constellation of photographic images, distilled from the research archive of Leif Firnhaber, immersing us in the mysterious language of water and the echoing words of water researchers across a century.
A thick home-made encyclopedia of water samples, compiled over years, with a big magnifying loupe invites visitors to lean in close and peer deep into the endless sceneries of never-repeating geometry.
A reading corner invites lingering, where visual impressions settle into new questions, and fresh perspectives emerge through the lenses of researchers and the artists’ own drafts.
What Are We Departing From?
We start by observing the element, just before it becomes rigid. We see a living and creative language of geometries.
Water sample of well water in the mountains of Iznik, Turkey — 2mm inside a 7cm glass petri-dish, placed on a dry leaf for less than a minute, then put into the freezer. Photographed while moving into the solid state, still viscous.
We must look into unknown dimensions, into Nature, into that incalculable and imponderable life, whose carrier and mediator, the blood of the Earth that accompanies us steadfastly from the cradle to the grave, is water.
— Schauberger, V. (1932). Implosion Magazine, No. 103
[PLACEHOLDER — the full “Subtle Influences I–IX” photo essay (moonlight, a song, a meeting’s mood, a chocolate brownie, aloe root water, flowers) is still being pulled directly from bastardleif.be/water-lab-oratory/ and will be added here in sequence, ending with a link through to the digital gallery.]
the Water Stories 