r i v e r h o o d, Eindorf Kunstraum Vienna 11.04.2025

1
After gathering at the bakery, we walked informally towards the bridge. That is walking
irregularly, without form. We were happy to meet with each other and to meet the
Wienfluss; to wander and wend is to turn – we turned to the relation of ‘human water-
body’ and ‘other water-body’: a re-pairing is to come together, again, back anew, with
another.

2
We went up close to the river to listen to it; (we like to) imagine ourselves as counter-
currents – these are parts of the wave that stream against the direction of the flow to
whirl up different aspects of the river. With less speaking and eyes closed, the rhythms
of our senses could co-navigate. To set in motion. Together, mutually, in common. And
we also listened to this, from the late author Christian Loidl:
seeing is water skin
counting is cutting

3
As we know, we are bodies of water – fluid systems shaped by and connected to water.
From our primordial and embryonic origins, water has and continues to shape us. Even
our bones are shaped by and contain water. We are carrying many forms of fluid through
our bodies’ pathways: blood in our veins & arteries, cerebrospinal fluid in the brain
and spine, saliva in our mouths, urine in our bladders, and liquid cushions for the
spheres of our eyes. Much like rivers, vital information is transported by these fluids.

4
The longest river in North America has many names. Mississppi was a re-naming of the
indigenous Ojibwe word for great river ‘Misi-ziibi’, the Dakota people called it Haha
Wakpa – “The river of the falls” and also Wakpa Tanka, which means „Great River.” And
there are many more names. This river was straightened, and it floods in the places where
it used to bend. In her writing, Toni Morisson insisted that the river is not flooding, it is
remembering. Water tries to get back to where it was, just as we do. Flooding is like a
rush of our imagination.

5
We went up to the river, down to the river, to listen.

— Here is a stone from what we’re doing now —

6
For a moment, to tune in to our fluid bodies, we stood with the ground under our feet, to feel the movement of water travelling inside our bodies – like a sway of subtle waves:
through our torso, passing our shoulders, down our arms and streaming into each
finger. We opened the palms of our hands towards each other, continuing to resonate
with the waves inside and outside our skin.

seeing is water skin, counting is cutting

The space between our palms was touched, without the palms touching. We brought
that space to rest on two points on our body, and we could feel a wave between the two
hands. A sounding back – to sound again, a wave again, an echo by repetition, by
reflection, by reverberation.

7
The bed of Wienfluss is made of stones from the mountain, stones from old streets,
and stones from the cemetery. Like this one here – it says “Friede ihrer Ascher” (“May
her ashes rest in peace”)

8
The river showed up, and showed us, that it’s flow, (the course of the water) likes to
be interrupted; obstacles, like a stone in the water, renew energy and shift the current.
“Look here: during the recent Vienna floods this big stone moved into the middle of
the river’s path.”
We watched the water move around it, rushing, caressing, changing and re-charging.
She stood up from the table where we had been having a conversation with books, and
she showed me – she said – you know if you’re standing here in the water, facing the
direction of the current, the water moves around you, it makes a wake behind you, a
following close behind – of lifted energized bubbles. But maybe you can’t see it, maybe
you need others to help you.

– Music intermission –

— Here is a stone from what we’re doing now.—

9
After we walked backwards for a while, we crossed over the street, down to the river
again, past where algae shaped like a snake used to curl on the surface of the water-
not there any more – it’s a disappearing algae-snake now – Some of us walked on all
fours next to the river. Some of us walked with rubber boots in the middle of the water,
with broad strides against the stream. Some of us took our socks and shoes off and
walked at the edges of the water.

10
We were standing, gathered together, in the wind canal. It’s a main air path for cooling
the city. In synch with the wind’s whistling, one of us told the rest of us about how it was
here – where we now stood – how it was millions of years ago.
“The primordial sea receded and what was left between the alps and the carpathians
was the so-called lake Pannon. (half the size of the Black Sea) Vienna is on the western
shore of where that lake was. Deep canyons formed the Vienna basin.”
We acknowledged standing on what was the bottom of an ancient sea. And we
imagined what kinds of habitat and inhabitants were alive in those times. “They were
beautiful!”

11
Stones, too, are an ancient form of condensed water. As water contains memory, so do
stones. So do the stones on the river bed. Water shapes rocks, and rocks shape rivers –
providing shelter, spawning grounds, and shaping water’s flow. We each found a rock
that resonated with us, we gave it a dedication, and placed it back into the river as an
offering.