Return the water. Students of Carme Auguet school and Marta R Chust & Roc Domingo Puig
“Return the Water” is an initiative within the framework of the Nexes educational program that brings together the Carme Auguet school, located in the Pont Major neighborhood, the Education Service of the Girona City Council and the Bòlit, Girona Contemporary Art Center.
The exhibition presents a set of works made by students in the second, third and fourth years of primary school accompanied by teachers and artists Marta R Chust and Roc Domingo Puig, with the collaboration of the rest of the school.
Over the last three years, they have observed and detected that the Ter River, which passes by the school, is polluted and has reduced its flow due to the drought.
In an attempt to help the river, the second year group decided to place different tanks on the classroom terrace in order to collect rainwater and thus return it to the Ter. To do this, they built glazed ceramic bowls that they then distributed to their classmates so they could pass the water around in a circuit until they reached the river.
The third-grade students focused on listening to and recording the different sounds of water to create a ritual that would invoke rain since it had not rained for many days. Based on the sounds collected, they made a body percussion song imitating the sounds of a storm: wind, rain and thunder. After many rehearsals, they decided to call on the other primary grades to perform the song together on the banks of the Ter River. Surprisingly, after the ritual, a few drops fell and it rained all afternoon.
To understand the relationship between the river and the water that reaches the school, the fourth-grade group investigated the building’s water circuit. The janitor, Jordi, gave the students a hand by sharing the plans of the pipes, to know where the water passes. From this study, they created a series of ceramic sculptures that imitated the pipes and placed them in different strategic points of the school, to make them aware that water circulates behind those walls.
During these three years, the teachers have been willing and dedicated to accompanying and collaborating with the project. This experience has given them the opportunity to be artists and has opened their eyes, focusing them on the school and the surroundings of the Carme Auguet, the Ter river. All this work has been possible thanks to everyone involved: students, teachers, adults, the Bòlit team and the Municipal Education Service, the support of Cultural Rizoma and, above all, Roc and Marta, the artists of this Nexes project.
