This Is Water

„This Is Water“, Brünner Str. 6-8, 1210 Vienna, August 2022, Photo: K. Schmidl

„This Is Water“, Brünner Str. 6-8, 1210 Vienna, August 2022, Photo: K. Schmidl

„This Is Water“, Schleifgasse 1, 1210 Vienna, August 2022, Photo: K. Schmidl

„This Is Water“, Brünner Str. 6-8, 1210 Vienna, November 2023, Photo: K. Schmidl

Vienna’s Floridsdorf district was once an expansive floodplain for the meandering Danube. Since the 1800s, the river was regulated, and the marshy ground along its banks was drained to extend the city’s settlement zones.

For the project „This Is Water“, two wooden pavilions, each replacing one parking space, were displayed in Vienna/Floridsdorf for a limited period, housing a micro-forest of the plants that would have thrived in this habitat if the Danube had not been regulated for the last 200 years: Elm, Maple, Ash, Linden, Wild Apple, Wild Pear, Hornbeam, Honeysuckle, Hazel, Black Elder, Guilder Rose, Ground Ivy, Cabbage Thistle, False Brome, and Sweet Violet. The plants were left to evolve autonomously over the months – illustrating what Floridsdorf would look like today, had nature been allowed to take its course.  

At the end of the project, the exhibits are planted in a public greenspace in Vienna. 

Location Schleifgasse 1, 1210 Vienna: April to November 2022

Location Brünner Straße 6-8, 1210 Vienna: April 2022 to November 2023

The project was realised as part of „DAS WETTER VON MORGEN“ (The Weather of Tomorrow) – an Open Call launched by KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien, (Art in Public Spaces, Vienna).

Financed by:

“Think for Yourself!”

Cornelia Offergeld

I.

THIS IS NOT WATER

‘This Is Water’ is the cryptic title of an artistic intervention, integrated into the public space in Vienna’s Floridsdorf district. The wording is all the more puzzling as there is no instantly apparent link between the location of the artist’s choice, and a visible body of water. The installation, however, speaks for itself: two roadside parking spaces have been transformed into luscious green oases: it is as though nature had partially reclaimed the land from which it was once banished to make way for cars, the favourite fetish of a destructive civilisation.

With a selection of trees, shrubs and grasses – planted in two pavilion-like wooden structures – the artist offers a glimpse of how Floridsdorf (originally a marsh and floodplain area) would look today, were it not for the regulation of the Danube in the 1870s. The flood-proofing of the river banks and subsequent draining of the soil turned the former wetland into a viable site for urban settlement. This is what enabled the expansion of Vienna to the other side of the Danube, in the form of the city’s 21st district.

With ‘This Is Water’, Katarina Schmidl plays with our perception as she takes us on a time-defying journey: not only into the past, but also into a possible future.

II.

THIS IS WATER

The nearby Danube still plays a central role in the lives of Floridsdorf’s inhabitants – though its impact is less encompassing than it was back in the day when the area’s few settlers traversed it via boats and bridges. Today, the Old Danube is a popular destination for recreational activities, as well as an important habitat for a variety of wildlife, ranging from beavers and swans to mallards and grey herons.

Katarina Schmidl’s intervention opens up a broad spectrum of connection points: her installation is a playful study of what is absent and what is present – and can simultaneously be understood as a warning against a climate catastrophe.

‘This is Water’ * references the eponymous speech by US-American writer David Foster Wallace, which he delivered to a graduating college class in 2005. Foster Wallace (1962 – 2008) ranks among the most astute observers of human nature in modern American literature. In his now legendary address he highlighted the importance of empathy and autonomous, critical thinking as the foundation for a self-aware and conscientious conduct in our daily lives. Among other gems of wisdom, he told his young audience the following fable: There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says: “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes: “What the hell is water?”

Katarina Schmidl takes up this question, and transfers it into an installation that fosters our awareness, attention and understanding of the world around us.

III.

WHAT IS WATER?

Katarina Schmidl’s artistic interventions in public spaces transcend formal categorisation: each project adheres to a case-specific approach and conceptual principle, with the respective idea giving rise to her choice of expressive medium. One might say that the artist has developed a practice of ‘referencing’ that prompts viewers to engage in processes of reflection. In Floridsdorf, she worked with the principle of the seemingly paradoxical – by presenting us with a double negative reminiscent of René Magritte’s ‘La trahison des images’ (literally: The Treachery of Images) of 1929: Magritte’s depiction of a pipe, accompanied by the words “This is not a pipe”, challenged viewers to reassess their preconceptions of reality. Similarly, Katarina Schmidl sets out to construct an inversion of functions, drawing attention to that which has been forgotten and repressed. The conception of her work may be location-specific, but its subtext also deals with the internal structures of perception. There are times, after all, when we are very much like the fish who does not know (or does not want to know) what water is.

The project forms part of the exhibition ‘DAS WETTER VON MORGEN’ (The Weather of Tomorrow), initiated by KÖR – Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (Art in Public Spaces) in Vienna.

* This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (2009) is an essay by David Foster Wallace. The text originates from a commencement speech Wallace gave at Kenyon College, Ohio, USA, on May 21, 2005.