Genova waters
Stretched between sea and mountains, Genova has developed in length (with its approx. 35 km, it is one of the longest cities in Italy) and is crossed by over 70 streams, rivulets and brooks that have been “buried” for urban and industrial reasons since the Middle Ages. The water bodies of this area, a complex, living and transcultural port land, have, over time, functioned as a vector of exchange with other territories but also a source of danger. One of the most industrialized Italian cities, Genova grapples with the consequences of river covering, a well-established practice intensified by capitalist industrialization and property speculation. This practice is a trauma that disrupts local ecosystems and communities, leading to resource deprivation and provoking floods and landslides, exacerbated by the looming climate emergency.
Corpi Idrici
Corpi Idrici is a transdisciplinary collective of artistic research initiated by Forevergreen in 2021. It was initiated from the desire to reason and collectively create a path of investigation and construction of imagery, starting from the particular relationship of the city of Genova with its waters in connection with grassroots associations and local activists.
Seeking to connect the city’s memories related to the element of water, punctuated by stories of floods, hydrogeological disruptions and land consumption, but also of futuristic experimentation and the development of unique skills, Corpi Idrici collective offers a sensitive map that brings to light the potential expressed by Genova’s hydro bodies, conjoined with community struggles for land defence, possible responses to environmental emergencies, rituals related to water, and the idea that it can represent a creative and vital continuous flow for the future.
The formulation of the Charter of the Rights of Hydro Bodies focuses on the diverse performative acts and workshops the collective organizes and intends to be the starting point for a change in people’s perspective and behaviour to stimulate a new awareness of the fundamental role of the present and future of rivers, streams, creeks, seas and rainwater, which can activate a collective path of their custody at the local level and a rapid change in city, regional and national legislation, considering them as subjects of rights.
