WATER
with CÉCILE HARTMANN
WORKSHOP PROGRAM
The workshop took the form of walks along the Loire by boats and on foot. Observation sessions related to water movements and the formation of the particular islands and ecosystems of this wild river, the last wild river in France, were activated.
Water was filmed and collected in various places, considered as a vital and primordial material. The river landscape became a sound sculpture, a “form-landscape”. A collection of water in containers was used to produce a sculptural installation. Mixed with clay or spread on the fire, the water came into dialogue with the other elements of the collective workshop.
Research was also conducted on the gestures and tools used to carry water. An exploration occurred on how to activate gestures that have disappeared today but which could, in the ecological crisis that was being experienced, become necessary again.
FULL GROUP PARTICIPATION
Pedagogical approach — fact sheet
Workshop title: Water
Author/coordinator: Cécille Hartmann
Duration/time span: 5 days
This workshop was part of the YES masterclass in Tours, resonating with the Loire River as a living, unstable, and ever-changing entity. Cécile Hartmann’s approach questioned gestures of attention, gathering, and restitution related to the river’s water, combining collective action, symbolic transmission, and sensitive observation of flows.
The workshop coincided with a week of heavy rain, further intensifying the Loire’s changing states: calmness, agitation, overflow, and retreat.
Context and program
Materials and methodologies
Materials used were simple yet symbolically charged: bamboo, ropes, metal buckets, cloth, and water from the river. Participants collaboratively built a bamboo structure designed to collect water from the riverbank. This structure was carried together in a slow, ritualistic procession. The methodology combined collaborative making, landscape engagement, and gesture-based attention. The group explored practices of ecological listening, shared physical effort, and symbolic re-integration of water into its natural flow.
How can we listen to a river beyond its visible surface? What does it mean to extract water in an age of ecological fragility? What collective gestures can symbolize care for a landscape? How can we shape an offering or restitution? The workshop staged a reversal of extractive logic through a symbolic gesture of return—giving back to the river what was previously taken, as an act of recognition or ecological gratitude.
Key issues
Results and observations
The core action of the workshop was a silent procession along the banks of the Loire, during which water collected was returned to the river. This act, both intimate and collective, was perceived as a poetic ritual, devoid of spectacle yet deeply meaningful. Participants reported a transformed relationship with the landscape: water became not merely a functional or symbolic element, but an agent within the artistic process. The slow pace, shared construction, and duration of the walk deepened a sensitive bond with the environment.
Buren, Daniel. (1971). “Notes on site-specific works.” In 5 Texts, translated by Béatrice Parent. Paris: Éditions Éric Fabre.
Diller, Elizabeth & Scofidio, Ricardo. (2002). Blur: The Making of Nothing. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Hartmann, Cécile. (2001). The Black Snake. Film. [Short film, 16 mm. Contact artist or gallery for access.]
Latour, Bruno. (2018). Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Trans. Catherine Porter. Cambridge: Polity Press.
References
Information provided and reviewed by each workshop coordinator. Content may be revised or updated.