Sand and Water
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Sand and Water
began by collecting autumn leaves
from a former site of an Egyptian colonial exhibition in Berlin,
a former "human zoo," and transporting those leaves from Berlin to Egypt in 2022.
Since then, Sand and Water has expanded into an evolving archive composed of leaves, sand and water, collected from Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, London and Porto, each connected to virtual environments, photogrammetric recordings and immersive audiovisual documentation.
Sand and Water, Francisco Mondaca Molina
Sand and Water, Francisco Mondaca Molina
Sand and Water is an ongoing project that brings together research, art, and action. Through materials, spatial practices, and different technologies, it explores the connections between ecologies, collective memories, and the changing temporalities of places that once hosted the so-called “human zoos”. The project has developed a methodology for tracing the visible and invisible traces of violence across places that share this common past and their diverse temporalities. Sand and Water explores how to make the invisible visible, creating spaces for new conversations.
Frames
What follows is a selection of moments through which Sand and Water has developed over time. While these projects have been initiated by Francisco Mondaca Molina, each has developed through different forms of collaboration, encounters, and shared processes. Some initiatives have taken on a life of their own, while others remain connected through the questions, places, and methodologies that shape the project.
Berlin
06.2026 Tracing Tretower Park
Location: Treptower Park, Berlin
Date: 06.2026
Format: Memorial plaque, exploratory walk, pop-up installation, artistic presentation
Collaboration: MA Multimodal Anthropology, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
As part of the Multimodal Ethnography MA course, this iteration of Sand and Water brought students from the Multimodal Ethnography MA course, convened by Magdalena Buchczyk at the IfEE- HU Berlin, and members of the local community together to revisit the site of the 1896 Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung and its so-called “Kairo” display.
The site is also connected to the beginning of Sand and Water in 2022, when autumn leaves were collected here from the former site of the Egyptian colonial exhibition and transported to Egypt. Three years later, the gesture was revisited through a collective walk, a pop-up installation, and the unveiling of a memorial plaque marking the place from which the leaves were taken. Through these encounters, materials, landscapes, and memories became ways of returning to the site and opening new conversations about its histories and traces of violence.
Helsinki
09.2025 A methodology
Location: Uniarts Research Pavilion, Helsinki, Finland
Date: 09.2025
Format: Multimodal installation and talk
Collaboration: TRACTS COST Action, A Line Drawn on Water — Adventures & Exchanges at the Art-Academia Interface, Exhibition Arena and Water. Organised by Lee Douglas; supported by COST
As part of the TRACTS symposium A Line Drawn on Water — Adventures & Exchanges at the Art-Academia Interface, Sand and Water was presented at the Uniarts Research Pavilion in Helsinki. The symposium brought together artists and researchers working across art and academia to explore experimental approaches to traces, creative research, and practice-based inquiry.
The presentation brought together a multimodal installation and a talk on the development of the Sand and Water methodology. The installation gathered materials and fragments from different moments of the project, including samples from different places and a brick made from the autumn leaves that travelled from Berlin to Egypt in 2022. The talk explored the project as a bridge between artistic practice and research, and its use of material and technological approaches to engage with collective memory.
The encounter opened new questions around critical approaches to archives, methodologies, and the ways different disciplines work with traces. Bringing together artistic, anthropological, and research-based perspectives, the symposium became an opportunity to test and reflect on the methodology of Sand and Water through new conversations and encounters.
Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
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It is a great pleasure to let you know that I am in Madrid presenting several years of work that bridges research and action: "Arena y Agua, Ecologías Artificiales."
The exhibition is part of the 9th Spanish-German Cultural Meeting, “Memorias // Erinnerungen,” organized by the Instituto Cervantes and the Goethe-Institut e.V. in the cultural space @nadienuncanadano.
The opening is today, 30th September, at 21:00, and the exhibition will be open till October 30th.
The exhibition includes three other artistic installations by Fernando Sánchez Castillo, María María Acha-Kutscher and Tomás Ruiz-Rivas, Colectivo Al-Akhawat. At the opening, Art al Quadrat gave a performance about the memory of women in Franco's regime and guided visits to each work.
Here I share the program for these days:
https://lnkd.in/dSkJWbSp
and an introduction by Cervantes: https://lnkd.in/dSkJWbSp
Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
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Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
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Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
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Porto
04.2025 Multimodal Installation
Location: Porto, Portugal
Date: 04.2025
Format: Workshop, film essay, multimodal Installation
In: TRACTS Multimodal Training School, Centre for Visual Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Workshop Leaders: Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, Miro Stambolsky.
As part of the TRACTS training school Audiovisual Remix: The Film Essay as Experiment in Trace, Sand and Water was developed through a three-day workshop bringing together researchers working with film, anthropology, visual studies, and practice-based research. The workshop explored the film essay as a way of producing knowledge through images, sound, editing, and multimodal experimentation.
Working with five film essays, the process explored how images, sounds, materials, and traces could be brought together to rethink the project’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided an opportunity to continue the research around the former colonial exhibition in Porto, through the exploration and analysis of monuments, sites, and other traces connected to its history. The conversations, feedback, and collective editing process opened new questions about how the project could move between research and artistic practice. The encounter also expanded the archive of Sand and Water, adding new places, images, and forms of knowledge to its ongoing investigation. I am grateful to Lee Douglas, Ricardo Leizaola, and Miro Stambolsky for creating this space for experimentation, exchange, and critical reflection.
