The Water Office was a curatorial exercise by Ruta del Castor presented in the boardroom of the Immigration Museum (MUNTREF) during BIENALSUR 2021. Conceived as a space for research, exchange, and experimentation, the project brought together archival works, videos, artistic processes and approaches, works in progress, a microsite with video art programming, and a public program.

The proposal articulated various efforts of thought and artistic representation concerning our relationship with water. From a perspective that questions heteronormative and binary conceptions of sexed biologies, water is presented as a force that demonstrates how bodies are constituted in symbiosis with their environment, through processes, relationships, adaptations, and metabolisms. The project stemmed from the urgency to regenerate the agreement we hold with the aquifer, recognizing water as an organism inseparable from communities and territories.

Participants included Adrián Balseca (Ecuador), Carolina Caycedo (Colombia), Centro Rural de Arte (Argentina), David Medina and entre ríos (Colombia and United Kingdom), Diego Andrés de la Cruz Gaitán (Puerto Rico), Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Laboratorio Anfibio del Plata (Argentina), Lía García, Canuto Roldán and Arlishan (Mexico), Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola (Mexico), Luisa Lerman (Argentina), Peter Fend (United States), Ramiro Chaves (Argentina), Tania Candiani (Mexico), and Tania Ximena (Mexico).

Curated by: Andrea de la Torre, Sofia Casarin and Sofia Bastidas