There is one overriding question underlying the Observatório dos Rios project, launched in 2023 by the Guarda Rios collective: “what is a river?”. This short essay is intended to reflect on the multi-layered issue that embraces and deconstructs it – “what is Observatório dos Rios?” -, specifically focused on the artist residency and public presentation that, for a whole week in June, took place at the open-air arena of Centro de Artes e Criatividade de Torres Vedras (CAC), based on previous (and simultaneous) fieldwork, in a sort of expedition through the hydrogeography of the municipality, including the Sizandro and Alcabrichel rivers. Nowadays comprising visual artists Francisco Pinheiro and Nuno Barroso, the latter from the scientific realm, the collective has been inviting artists and researchers from different areas to develop narratives/playwrights and a series of performative actions suited to each river ecosystem and local reality through which it has made its way from the north to the south of Portugal, with the Odisseia Naciona tour of Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II. The project’s cross-disciplinary aspect is already obvious, from its ties to anthropology and ethnography in the working methods surrounding its creation and research, to the aforementioned fieldwork, participatory observation in and across the territory, an interpretive stance on culture and its understanding as a mesh of meanings that weave their way from the past to the present and shape the future.

Artworks or artistic endeavours, along with their authors, are not “islands” cut off from the day-to-day world or the artistic world. As such, an artist’s or collective’s trajectory is often fuelled by responding to the context (in) which they live and/or by a steady study of the media in which they work. As for the primary subject of Observatório dos Rios, as the name indicates, there is an awareness of the ongoing zeitgeist of contemporary society and the world, dominated by a growing consciousness of and research into ecological issues and life sustainability on Earth, namely the concern over the planet’s fresh water shortages, the drive to find strategies to improve its management and the protection of river ecosystems. It promotes debate, cross-disciplinarity and the development of collaborative networks with organisations and communities from each hydrogeography, all acting together to find solutions to alleviate this threat. Concepts such as “post-natural” are being rekindled in this context, by rejecting the split between nature, culture and other areas of life, such as technology and art, challenging an anthropocentric world view and the romanticising of nature, as well as proposing a cosmopolitical approach to acknowledge the heterogeneous character of reality and champion activism to tackle climate change and rampant extractivism, speeded up by a form of globalisation unaware of its own impact on the Earth and in which capitalism turns even so-called nature conservation initiatives into a business. Together with this concept, philosophical and ethical viewpoints such as biophilia, pioneered by ecologist Edward Wilson in the 1980s in his book Biophilia, arguing for an innate emotional connection between humans and nature, are once again emerging in different subjects, particularly in art.

From an artistic perspective, Observatório dos Rios resembles a junction between remnants of collective performance or happenings, such as those of the Fluxus group or Black Mountain College, and more up-to-date artivist movements influenced by the politicisation of art through awareness of social and/or environmental issues embedded in the aesthetic experience. The project’s overarching objective is to democratise and de-sacralise art, bringing it “down to earth” to dispel its aura character and reconnect it with life, promoting public ownership of the artwork(s), directly or indirectly, but also by recreating, improving and placing the spotlight on the artistic media themselves, here in strict liaison with the subject of rivers, not only because of the narrative surrounding the scientific element of their origin and the history of the fauna and flora around them, which live in them, but also through the use of their natural resources (sustainably obtained) to build some of the pieces included in the installation or environment that brought Observatório dos Rios to life in Torres Vedras. Some examples are the cover dyed with natural pigments in Castelo Branco, used as a canopy in different events; the stones collected from rivers, on which the artists wrote words, serving the two-fold role of examining the world’s timeline, in one section of the participatory performance, and building a lithophone; the sediment in giant test tubes (made of acrylic) to emulate the hyporheic zone of rivers; and the dyed fabrics, water and sand of Mesa-Rio, which illustrates its formation. Some have an aesthetic edge allied to a functional and educational component, others are improvised and play a role in the narrative(s) on rivers, and their function (aesthetic and effectively “useful”) may change based on the needs and flow of the participatory initiatives and creative process.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, one of the literary landmarks chosen by the Guarda Rios collective, is a fitting metaphor for this installation and performance(s) – an “explanation” of how the world is shaped and continually modified, where reality, mythology and imagination are intertwined, favouring a hybrid between storytellers and painters (or set builders). The union between the experimentation inherent in the scientific method and the experimental nature of conceptual art leads to aesthetic experiences steeped in a symbiosis between the sensations elicited by the Observatório dos Rios scenario(s) and their memories (tied to the relationship with rivers and their associated organisms, one that was healthier and more intimate in the past). This synaesthesia also includes a bridge between artistic/craft techniques from ancient traditions – felting and the woollen “sculptures” introduced to the residency by artist Ana Rita de Arruda, handmade musical instruments, the simple and crude construction of the sets with the abstract expressionism of organic fabrics and the use of materials like wood – and new media and/or contemporary art languages (photography, video and electronic music), all in favour of a recreational environment that helps the project’s educational dimension and also translates into an aesthetic decision by the collective to send a message and the creation that goes with it.

The project’s partnerships with municipalities, institutions and associations in each hydrogeography have been key to its success. In Torres Vedras’ case, the support of the CAC and the Somos Comunidade group of ATV – Académico de Torres Vedras stands out, allowing for activities with the Música sem Idade choir, the GADV (Office for the Support of the Visually Impaired) theatre group and fifth and eighth grade classes, as well as a short trip along the municipality’s rivers with João Raimundo, from the Torres Vedras City Council’s Environmental Department. The Guarda Rios offered the former a chance to sing a remake of José Afonso’s song Milho Verde, with new lyrics and a new title – Lodo Verde; the second privileged hearing, smell and touch, using exercises that included the lithophone, pure wool and the one turned into textile art by Ana Rita de Arruda, always together with reflections on the relationship network with the rivers and rounded off with Francisco Pinheiro telling the story of the eel, a species that has been around for over 65 million years, but whose extinction is likely, “not because I fear the disappearance of my species, but because I fear that humans will fail to see their trail here on the planet, which has always been guided by the moon and the motion of water”. The young audience visited the different facilities of Observatório dos Rios, with more active, playful and educational activities, celebrating Environment Day at the same time. The brainstorming on what a river is, the collaborative work and the overview of the activities undertaken and the reflection on critical and worrying issues, such as the increasing salinisation of water and soil and the harmful effects of dams, gave rise to an open work, inspired by Umberto Eco’s concept, permeated by a degree of improvisation and consequently freer and more fluid, in which, besides its didactic, scientific and aesthetic nature, the affection and celebration among the small community established that week, in the CAC arena’s microcosm, was also noticeable. This immersive experience, the “poetics of the work in motion (…) establishes a new kind of relationship between artist[s] and audience, a new mechanics of aesthetic perception, a different position of the artistic product in society”.[1]

The Guarda Rios collective carries on the Observatório dos Rios tour in September, taking river mysteries to Serpa and Ermesinde, as poetically described in Hart Crane’s verses: ” The River lifts itself from its long bed, // Poised wholly on its dream, a mustard glow // Tortured with history, its one will — flow!”.[2]

[1] Eco, Umberto. (1989 [1962]). The Open Work. Lisbon: Difel, pp. 93-94.
[2] Crane, Hart. (1995 [1930]). The Bridge. Lisbon: Relógio d’Água, p. 45.