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Journal 07.06.2023

The European project ‘Water Commons’start in Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park in France!

On Tuesday 2nd May, a global approach and first steps for the development of the commission were discussed in order to write the final statement which can be presented to the artists.



We have begun working with the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park in 2022 on the subject of water, which is an important player as regards different topics around environment questions. Water is of such large importance in the Jura and  has become an unprecedented problem in recent times.

We also started this process with the Ministry of Culture / DRAC Bourgogne-Franche-Comté which has set up a program of artistic residencies and commissions: Nature in Solidum, with the Nature Park around ecology and environment challenges.

We had a first meeting in March 2023 with the staff of the Regional Nature Park who is in charge of water. We clarified the subject and the common thread of the commission would be the karst, a component of the Jura mountains and characterised by large fractured limestone massifs through which water seeps down. The long dry periods observed in recent years have reinforced the vulnerability of the water resource present in the karst, which provides water for 1/3 of the population.

The mediator and commisioners begun working with the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park in 2022 on the subject of water.
The mediator and commisioners begun working with the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park in 2022 on the subject of water.

Speleologists, a politician from the village of La Rixouse, a geographer in the non-profit association "pôle_karst" are particularly concerned by this question, playing different roles in the process of the research with the invited artist.

On Tuesday 2nd May, a global approach and first steps for the development of the commission were discussed in order to write the final statement which can be presented to the artists.

It was also obvious that we were not waiting for a site specific artwork, the territory concerned by the question being too wide, this decision is also mainly linked with the specificity of the geological context: an underground network that is by definition invisible. And this invisibility could be part of an interesting question to deal with.

The art work might be mobile: film, photos, drawings and texts, sound work for instance. The final result aims to raise awareness of the climatic changes underway which have natural, economical consequences, and to focus on what must be collectively reconsidered as a ‘common good’.

The 3rd of July we will meet in La Rixouse for the choice of the artist. Meanwhile, we will still have exchanges in order to deepen the specifications that the group can suggest to the artists.