Catalonia in Venice_Water Parliaments: Projective Ecosocial Architectures

Water Parliaments explores the critical role of water as both a vital resource and cultural agent, addressing the global climate crisis through architecture, interdisciplinary research, and innovative design.

Focusing on the Catalan, Valencian and Balearic contexts while also confronting global ecological challenges, the project reimagines architecture as a multispecies collaborative practice that reflects the interdependence between living and non-living beings and water systems and delves into their impact in shaping the cultural landscapes and ecosystems.

Commissioned and produced by Institut Ramon Llull and curated by Eva Franch i Gilabert, Mireia Luzárraga, and Alejandro Muiño, Water Parliaments embodies the urgency of addressing water-related challenges by integrating architecture with cultural and ecological narratives.

The exhibition transforms a historic space dedicated to shipbuilding into a water parliament, inviting visitors to reflect on the role of water in shaping our environment. The design of the installation is conceived as an exploration of new formats capable of incorporating multiple voices, both human and non-human. The objective is to generate a purposeful and reflective space that combines bodily and intellectual experimentation, thus promoting a critical and complex understanding of the central theme.

Upon entering the premises, visitors are met with a semantic explosion: 100 New Words for Water. Created and defined by voices from around the world, it welcomes us and expands our available vocabulary with which to approach the visit.

Next, a short film presents the seven issues that frame the case studies of the exhibition. The film introduces the journey of the Water Parliaments project, from the heartwarming experience of the Laboratories of Futures to the challenges, hegemonies, controversies, solutions, and aspirations of the projective architectures proposed by the curators.

When we leave the screen behind, we find ourselves presented with a view of the exterior structure, a key architectural element of the exhibition that invites us to continue the journey and delve deeper into this immersive experience about the future of water. This installation has been constructed from a tensioned fabric membrane, delicately suspended within the building’s structure, which envelops and captures light and movement to promote the sensation of a living space in constant transformation.

This evocative staging is complemented by fog cycles, with periodic discharges of steam that transform the space into an ethereal and changing atmosphere. These cycles reinforce the central theme of the exhibition: water as a vital and dynamic element. The interaction between the fog and the tensile fabric generates a multisensory play of lights and shadows that surrounds visitors in a unique immersive experience.