..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
..................................................................................................
Irmelin Joelson //
The Salt // fragment from video
The Sweet // fragment from video
SUROKI I The Dialectics of the Brackish
In this collaboration with Irmelin Joelson (Göteborg - SE) we resided on the Curionan Spit in Lithuania for almost six weeks. During our stay we have been exploring the Eastern sweet waters of the Curonian Lagoon and the salt waters of the Baltic shore.
Sweet (or fresh) water and salt water are immiscible entities. Density differences between the volumes of sweet and saltwater prevent them from mixing. The liquids become zones with separate features in a territory where the waters are stratified in layers of different thicknesses. Water containing the most dissolved salt forms the bottom layer, while the less dense water remains on top: saltwater at the bottom and sweet water at the top. They mix and yet they don’t.
But as much as they are different, at the distal end of the peninsula - where the passenger ferry touches both sides to pick and drop – the two join, become brackish and loose their characteristic features. The vague contours of the location where one stops and the other begins meeting the shoal of sandy land, somewhere, in the middle.
T.R.A.C.E.S AIR 2011
The Sweet - hdv video, colour, stereo, 24 min 09 sec, looped
The Salt - hdv video, colour, stereo, 35 min 19 sec, looped