WE ARE OCEAN Water Walk

Water Walk (as part of WE ARE OCEAN)

The GALA (Green Art Lab Alliance) Ocean, Rivers, Water Group members Ayer Ayer in Singapore and Malaysia, Artesumapaz in Colombia, ARTPORT_making waves, ImagoBubo in Spain, Invisible Flock in Yorkshire, Knockvologan Studies in Scotland and Translocal in the UK  came together in summer 2020 to brainstorm virtually for some weeks. We decided collaboratively to plan a new global movement: the Water Walk (which will be part of WE ARE OCEAN): an active, hybrid and worldwide connecting tool among civil society, a non-hierarchical art project, an interdisciplinary intervention, where everybody can participate all over the world. We are inviting individuals, schools, companies, universities, art collections, foundations, research institutes, governments, museums, everybody to come on board and participate in long term engagement with the protection of our water, rivers and ocean. A walk starting on the day of the original start of COP26 in Glasgow in 2020, leading up to the postponed start of COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 and continuing throughout the UN Decade for Ocean Science and Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

Water Walk:

We are water, river, lake, sea, ocean and glacier. And the health of these bodies of water depends on us, just as we and all life on Earth depend on them.

The WE ARE OCEAN – Water Walk aims to bring people from all over the globe together for a walk towards water, whether a river, glacier, the ocean or a creatively staged water scene at home. A Water Walk is a time to reflect on the importance of water for well-being and to celebrate aquatic connections across world. Your Water Walk could be a journey of meditation, poetry, music, togetherness or silent contemplation.

On Sunday, 8th November you are invited to join us individually or in groups of friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. The walk could be at any time of the day and as long or short as you like, but should end when you reach a watery destination. When you get there, we would like you to make a one-minute film of your river, lake, ocean or other body of water and send it to us at weareocean.waterwalk@gmail.com to become part of a collective artwork to be presented for COP26.

The WE ARE OCEAN – Water Walk is created by the Ocean River Water Group of the Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA), an informal, international network of art organisations contributing to environmental sustainability through their creative practice.

Here are some tips for the video:

1. Turn your phone or camera to the landscape position.

2. Press to record as you walk toward a body of water.

3. You could a) point your camera down on your feet as you start walking and slowly pan up to show the body of water and its surroundings, b) bring your camera close to the water show us the state of the water, its colour, living organisms, c) record the area surrounding the body of water, the banks, shore, pathways, flora and fauna, ocean trash, pollution or d) do something completely different.

4. We would like everything to be captured in a single video of about one minute in length, so make a continuous recording and don’t worry about editing.

5. Send the video to weareocean.waterwalk@gmail.com with your name, the location of recording and any other details you’d like to share.

Dates:  08 November 2020 (the first walk received a lot of international attention and people in more than 10 countries participated in different time zones from 10 am in the morning, we received more than 100 submissions). The next dates will be published soon.

Artists: Everybody who wants to participate; our project artists and group members are: Ernest Goh, Pedro Crump, Victoria Pratt, Rutger Emmelkamp, Miek Zwamborn

Participants: everybody who wants to come on board

Partners: Green Art Lab Alliance, Ayer Ayer in Singapore and Malaysia, Knockvologan Studies in Scotland, Invisible Flock in Yorkshire, UK, Translocal in London, ImagoBubo in Spain and Artesumapaz in Colombia and more to be published soon

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