‘Everything Flows’, from the cycle ‘Inventorying Rivers’

technical assistance: Wojciech Lewandowski

The work, first shown several years ago during the Aquamediale festival in Lübben, Germany, was reassembled now in Wrocław and in this way took on a new meaning. Two transparent Plexiglas boards with phrases reading Wszystko płynie [Everything Flows] and Alles fließt were hung above the water in such a way that the inscriptions could be read as reflections on the water sheet. The work made a reference to the liquid identity and changing nationality of Wrocław, reminding us about the impermanence of that which we perceive as unshakeable and unchangeable. It also seemed to emphasise the river, an inseparable part of the city and a patient witness to its turbulent history. The shape of the river, its old and new beds, dry river basins, canals, polders, and sluices – this is the river’s memory, which remembers a thousand-year-long story.

> Michał Bieniek

photo: Peter Kreibich