Institute for Postnatural Studies, playlist: Alchemical Metabolism – In Conversation with Emanuele Coccia by Jan Araújo, Lena Becerra, Helen Yin Chen, Tuçe Erel, Helene Schulze (thumbnail)
Alchemical Metabolism – In Conversation with Emanuele Coccia by Jan Araújo, Lena Becerra, Helen Yin Chen, Tuçe Erel, Helene Schulze
00:00 / 60:30
Institute for Postnatural Studies, playlist: Pangea Erotica by Elena Falomo, Fabiana Mapel, Joy Pepe, Inês Barros, Sabrina Basilio, Courtney Mackedanz (thumbnail)
Pangea Erotica by Elena Falomo, Fabiana Mapel, Joy Pepe, Inês Barros, Sabrina Basilio, Courtney Mackedanz
00:00 / 44:49
Institute for Postnatural Studies, playlist: Stromatolites and Other Lovers by Sara Willa, Martina Camani*, Joanna Wierzbicka, Javiera Peón-Veiga, anna ivanova (thumbnail)
Stromatolites and Other Lovers by Sara Willa, Martina Camani*, Joanna Wierzbicka, Javiera Peón-Veiga, anna ivanova
00:00 / 19:54
Institute for Postnatural Studies, playlist: What the Land Remembers When We Cannot by Jess Zamora-Turner, Valerie Prinz, Kutlwano Ramphele, Irina-Anca Bobei, Tamara Kalo, Abri de Swardt (thumbnail)
What the Land Remembers When We Cannot by Jess Zamora-Turner, Valerie Prinz, Kutlwano Ramphele, Irina-Anca Bobei, Tamara Kalo, Abri de Swardt
00:00 / 62:09
Institute for Postnatural Studies, playlist: Rift Matter by Lhotse Collins, Anna Karinvinge, Hailey Basiouny, Sondi, Alessandro (thumbnail)
Rift Matter by Lhotse Collins, Anna Karinvinge, Hailey Basiouny, Sondi, Alessandro
00:00 / 35:08
Institute for Postnatural Studies, playlist: Rest as Return by Julian Rieken, Vika Privalova, Yoojin Lee (thumbnail)
Rest as Return by Julian Rieken, Vika Privalova, Yoojin Lee
00:00 / 65:53

WET DREAMS

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: WET DREAMS (hero landscape)

General Info

Location

CentroCentro, Madrid

Date

03/03/2024 – 10/08/2024

Typology

Exhibition

Curated by

Marina Otero Verzier

Wet Dreams addresses water beyond its understanding as a resource, exploring its role as a catalyst in eco-social relations. The exhibition highlights design practices that embrace decolonial, queer and hydro-feminist approaches, emphasizing forms of embodiment, solidarity and desire in relation to bodies of water and fluid matter. Wet Dreams speaks of waters that heal, of toxic and waste waters, of bodily fluids. It invites rain, rivers, reservoirs and mud. It conjures up sewers, stopcocks, conduits hidden behind walls, in cellars and under ceilings. It invokes the world of hoses and pipes. And the orifices that allow the liquids that soak our worlds to enter, as well as the occasional leaks, drips and overflows of the repressed.

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: WET DREAMS (fig. 1)

Exhibition view, CentroCentro

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: WET DREAMS (fig. 2)
Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: WET DREAMS (fig. 3)

Tanks and Storms

During the first hour of rainfall, the water entering Madrid’s sewer system carries more pollutants than the black or wastewater from an entire residential building. These toxins—largely the result of air pollution—are commonly referred to as Madrid’s “boina” (or “beret”). Stormwater tanks, vast underground infrastructures that form part of the city's sanitation system, are responsible for preventing these rain-swept particles from ending up in rivers—such as the shallow Manzanares. The delicate coexistence between urban inhabitants and the city’s fragile fluvial ecosystem continues thanks to these invisible networks of tunnels, collectors, and reservoirs, whose scale aligns more closely with that of a planetary organ than with any human-scale system.

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: WET DREAMS (fig. 4)

Tanks and storms: Underground water infrastructures

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: WET DREAMS (fig. 5)

Stormtank at Arroyofresno, Madrid

This research project, presented by the Institute for Postnatural Studies as part of the exhibition Wet Dreams, uses eco-fiction as a tool to reveal the inner workings of this hidden infrastructure.

Set in a near and plausible future (year 2185), the fictional narrative follows a space explorer arriving at the site of the Arroyofresno Stormwater Tank in search of a possible 100 liters of water detected through volumetric measurement tools. Presented in an experimental format that simulates a transcription made by the explorer’s suit or spacecraft, the short story chronicles the arrival, descent, analysis, and outcome of this expedition—offering a speculative, poetic lens into the subterranean mechanisms that continue to mediate life in the city.

Credits

WITH WORKS BY

Yi-Fei Chen, Matilde Cassani, Elsa Casanova Sampé, Lluis Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, Patricia Coelho, elii [oficina de arquitectura], Mariam Elnozahy, Pol Esteve Castelló, Marco Ferrari, Ignacio G. Galán, Elise Hunchuck, Institute for Postnatural Studies, Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation, María Jerez, La Cuarta Piel, Elena López Riera, Miguel Montoya, Ivan L. Munuera, Marc Navarro, Claudia Paredes, Philippe Rahm, Joel Sanders, Jan Christian Schulz, Rebecca Schedler, Ariadna Silva Fernández, Ana Robles Pérez, Serina Tarkhanian, Susan Schuppli.

PARTNER

Mayrit Biennal

Graphic Design

Víctor Clemente

MUSEOGRAPHY

Pablo Ferreira Navone

CURATORIAL ASSITANCE

Ana Robles Pérez

With the support of

Creative Industries Fund NL, Cultuur Eindhoven, Fundación María José Jove

PHOTOS

Alberto Omiste

Related content

Institute for Postnatural Studies, project: FROM FLESH TO DATA (thumbnail landscape)

FROM FLESH TO DATA

Research VENICE, 2023