Was das Wasser erzählt

2018-2026

Film
Credits
Website

“I am the heron”. The voice of a woman recounts an extraordinary encounter with a heron by a stream. Is it a dream, a hallucination, fatigue due to overwork? Was das Wasser erzählt follows the course of a stream, drawing attention to human and more-than-human presences that often remain invisible and unheard. Listening to murmuring waters, the film reveals how rapid urban expansion on the outskirts of Zurich is covering ancient marshes, threatening to destroy wildlife forced into proximity and coexistence with human beings, displacing inhabitants from times immemorial, or already forgotten, and erasing their imperceptible traces.

Was das Wasser erzählt turns to film as a medium through which to hear the voices and inherent language of water. Through a change of viewpoint, it becomes possible to apprehend water as a place where ecosystems come together. Encouraging a radical decentring, the film proposes a change of perception that reveals fragile multi-species worlds and cohabitations. This shift invites us to reflect on the colonisation of natural areas that mankind has carried out over the ages, polluting waters and imposing on flora and fauna its arbitrary classification of life, its disregard, its violence.

wasdaswasser.xyz

Was das Wasser erzählt

a body of work by Maria Iorio / Raphaël Cuomo
2018–2026

an art and architecture project for
Wohnsiedlung Leutschenbach, Zürich-Seebach

commissioned and produced in collaboration with
Fachstelle Kunst und Bau, Amt für Hochbauten, Stadt Zürich

film

production
le réel et le possible
Iorio / Cuomo

storyteller
Faytinga

music composed by
Diane Barbé

singing voices
Faytinga
Minami Saeki

creative producer
Laura Romano

with
Feven Afeworki
Minami Saeki

in the restaurant
Mizan Ghebretinsae
Ali Aska Naziri
Samrawit Abraham
Mohammad Saber Amiri
Lizben Awet
Ismaet Ibrahim
Abdulrahman Jarkas
Yodit Kahsay
Sekandari M. Naser
Berhane Waldeselassia

on the construction site
Denise Fritschi aka Küken
Landry Rut and his team
and all of the workers involved

script and editing
Maria Iorio / Raphaël Cuomo

adaptation of the script and translation into Tigrinya
Feven Afeworki
Awet Aregay
D. (a researcher in Geneva)

camera
Raphaël Cuomo

field recordings
Maria Iorio
sound adviser and mix
Gilles Aubry

additional recordings
Diane Barbé
Stéphane Vecchione

contrabass, percussions, foley
Pia Achternkamp

additional electronic textures
Irwin Barbé

instrument building and repair
Audric Chauvin

additional sound design
Varoujan Cheterian

additional field recordings
Pablo Diserens

recording studio
Phonotope – Ateliers du Simplon
Antoine Eizer

colour grading
Cuttlefish

assistants
Soën Dällenbach
Njomza Dragusha
Tony Stio

hairstyle
Eri Coiffure
Samrawit Kfleyesus

DCP production
Lomotion
David Röthlisberger

publication

edition fink
Georg Rutishauser

inscription/installation

production
Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen
Sebastian Lenggenhager, Lex Liechti, Christoph Gunsenheimer, Nathan Federer

website

web developer
Benjamin Haeberli

translation
Viola Böhm
Simon Chapman
Christine Lemke
Laura Strack
Hubertus von Gemmingen

with the support of
Clou Architekt:innen
Andreas Feurer, Patrick Krecl, Hannes Ludwig

Atelier Oriri Landschaftsarchitekten
Tanja Gemma, Ramel Pfäffli

Natural History Museum of the University of Zürich
Isabel Klusman

Restaurant Riedbach
Christine Fitzinger, Tobias Grunder
the team
Gabor Brinckmeyer, Kathrin Hädrich, Martin Lange, Ralph Schläpfer, Stefan Triebs
the apprentices
Martin Cinrarin, Traore Kaim, Daniel Kasende, Tenzin Kanamtsang, Aman Menges, Sarmeila Navaneethan, Liagadkhan Oryrkhail, Ali Shafaci

C–A–L–M
Centre d’art la Meute, Lausanne

Gezana — Swiss-Eritrean Association
Feven Afeworki – cultural coordinator

thanks to
Awet Aregay, Gilles Aubry, Simon Chapman, Ruth Childs, Ciro and Geneviève Cuomo, D. (a researcher in Geneva), Oriane Emery, David Fonjallaz, Aio Frei, Daniel Hauser, Gästehaus Hunziker, Tobias Hering, Philipp Kast, Isabel Klusman, Franz Krähenbühl, Jan Lemitz, Christine Lemke, Federica Martini, Dominique Mathitot, Jordane Maurs, Seraphin Müller, Yasmin Naderi Afschar, Eveline Odermatt, ogs-seebach.ch, Rigo Pohl, Jean-Rodolphe Petter, Jacopo Rasmi, Hans Rudolf Reust, Elena Riccobene, Laura Romano, Romy Ruegger, Georg Rutishauser, Marc-Olivier Schatz, Samuel Schellenberg, Anselm Stalder, Stéphane Vecchione, Yvonne Wilhelm, Arnold Wirz, Anna Wódkowska

special thanks
Feven Afeworki, Kristin Bauer, Tobias Grunder
Dahab Faid Tinga
and the herons, who have been with us from the very beginning