Research question:  How can an emotional/spiritual relation with water create new narratives of hydro-justice by looking at how water as an agential actor manifests itself through an absurd ritual of restraining thirst?

Abstract  

In his first speech after his return to Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shia cleric and the leader of Iranian revolution, promised people to free them from imperialist values of materialistic attachments, making electricity and water free of charge, and exalting their souls and spirits. Now, after 40 years, in Iran scarcity of water and electricity is the main driver of political unrest in every corner of the country.

Amir is originally from Iran, a country that is on the verge of a water crisis that government mismanagement, a population boom and climate change have brought on.

However in this semi-arid area, people have been managing water resources for 3,000 years, coping with water scarcity and drought, and achieving a stable balance of water resources. Water has been so deeply engraved in Iranian culture that it can be traced back to the furthest corners of their dreams and delusions, to the extent that we can say through different eras and ages in this territory, God(s) and people have always talked the language of water.

To find a way to encounter the absence of water, In his research Amir tried to shed light on how the cultural structures of the Iranian local communities have been inundated by ‘water’. Through an investigation into Zoroastrian mythology, the Islamic belief system around water, folklore narratives, rain claiming rituals, the Qanat marriage ceremony, and a study of ancient hydraulic infrastructures of water division; he was triggered by the many ways people approached the mysterious nature of this substance and its agency in directing the course of history.

In a synthetic process, the information gathered from the research and interviews with experts from The International Center of Qanats and Historic Hydraulic Structures and a Dervish cleric, resulted in the invention of a ritual based on a round table discussion moderated and facilitated by water itself. 

The replicable experience is in a form of absurd ritual which tries to contrast the will of water and the will of humans and other entities.

The ritual is performed in order to open a day-long fasting of water. The participants are each assigned a vessel which is connected to other vessels with a tube. As a result all participants have access to a shared water resource which they use to restrain their thirst. The experience uses the principle of communicating vessels to provoke interactions between stakeholders with different interests, expectations and needs. Based on this principle, in vessels which are connected to each other, the surface of the water remains always at the same level horizontally in each of the vessels. Therefore, any changes in the height of each vessel will result in disruption of equal distribution of water, leaving some vessels empty and some filled. The performance of ritual is accompanied by reading texts and poems to water appealing for its surrender.

Amir asks: How can we show our devotion to water? What does it mean that the water is everywhere? How do we relate to water, to each other? Can we really control the water? Is it graspable? How does it control us? Are we of the same spirit? 

By asking these questions, the project will convene the audience to think beyond human-centered and nation-based narratives and to explore forms of fluid solidarity in wet-togetherness.