Se penso al posto da cui provengo, il fiume anche se non grande è molto veloce, perchè torrente di montagna. Viene usato per il lavoro, per trasportare il legname dall'alto della montagna fino alla segheria a valle, quest'ultima sorgeva al bordo del fiume stesso per facilitare il tutto. Villaggi e città, se può, crescono e si sviluppano sull'acqua dolce di fiumi e laghi, perchè si sa siamo fatti per il 90% d'acqua e ne abbiamo bisogno ogni giorno. La vita sociale in alcuni paesi si basa sullo stare a contatto con l'acqua, vedono nell'acqua qualcosa di sacro.
La verità è che come per molte cose non ci prendiamo abbastanza cura di questo elemento così importante. A qualsiasi altitudine ci si trovi l'acqua è sporca, con immondizia e dimenticanze umane. Le conseguenze sono ovvie: la fauna e la flora scompaiono o diminuiscono ammalandosi, e noi beh noi beviamo quell'acqua, ci laviamo, puliamo i nostri vestiti e i nostri cani.
Vorrei dedicare questo primo articolo sui fiumi ad una mostra dell Museum Contemporary Art di Sydney, mostra dedicata all'equilibrio delicato della natura scompare piano piano, ma inesorabile. Alcuni artisti fotografando e dipingendo documentano.
Rivers have always been, and still are in some places in the world a real street that people use to move from a place into another, or to work, to eat, to live with. There are places where nature is impenetrable, it doesn't permit to human beings to go inside, rivers are the only answer. It would be better say that it was the only answer, becuse now these amazing places are devastated in so many different ways, but we will have time to speak about it.
If a think about where a come from, montain rivers are not really big but fast, they are used for work to transport timber cutting down to the valley to the sawmill which usually is close to the river as well. Villages and cities in the past originated near a a fresh water source, and this is because e are made for 90% of water and we can't live without it. In some areas water became somenthing sacred, and they base their social life on water.
But the truth is that as for many other things, we don't take care enough of this important element. To any altitude, water is dirty of waste and human omissions. Consequences are unmistakable: animals and plants die or they became less and less and sick. And us? well, we go on drinking that water, washing ourselves and our pets and clothes.
I would like to dedicate this first article about water and rivers to an exbition in the Museum of contemporary art of Sydney. These artists, through photogrphy and art, try to speak about the delicate balance of nature (in this case about Australia) that we are destroying.
Bonita Eli
"These photographs of the Murray River and its environs were taken in January, 2009. The project began in 1977, when I documented the Murray River’s edge and its changing landscape."
"Thirty years on, after years of severe drought, the Murray River is beset with blue green algae, turbidity, acid sulphate contamination, salination, torpidity, dried up lakes and red river gum die back. In South Australia it is barely flowing. Lake Alexandrina, the river’s estuary, is a massive dust bowl dispersed with shallow pools of acid sulphate water. More than a metre below sea level, salt water inundation from the Coorong and Southern Ocean is held back by barrages."
Tasmanian rivers
Badger Bates
"Badger Bates (William Brian Bates) was raised by his extended family and his grandmother Granny Moysey, with whom he travelled the country, learning about the language, history and culture of the Paakantji people of the Darling River, or Paaka."
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