In 2014 Outset Netherlands supported the exhibition Power of Water at Fotodok Utrecht. Power of Water included new work by international photographers that explore the importance of water. Too salty, too dirty, too scarce, too abundant, threatening, cultivated, megalomaniacal, poetic, basic right or privilege, who does water ultimately belong to? And what if it runs out? There are a number of pressing water issues that can affect us personally, although in the Netherlands we generally assume that our water supply is guaranteed. The Power of Water series showed that water is vital to life and transcends national borders.
Power of Water presented small facts about our own water usage presented by Anne Geene and Brian Voermans to the epic global water usage of Edward Burtynsky, as well as water mismanagement in China by Benoit Aquin and the major and minor disputes around five cross-border rivers by Disputed Waters.
From the Dutch waterworks at night, when we are at our most vulnerable, by Marie-José Jongerius, to the poetic underwater world in Zeeland by Elspeth Diederix. From the endangered Mississippi Delta and European coast portrayed by Kael Alford and Carl de Keyzer respectively, to water scarcity in Israel by Jan Rosseel and the influence of water on the Dutch psyche by Niels Stomps. Inside at FOTODOK and outside at Domplein, they all challenge us to think differently about water. Power of Water presented work by Kael Alford (USA), Benoit Aquin (CAN), Edward Burtynsky (CAN), Elspeth Diederix (NL), Anne Geene (NL), Marie-José Jongerius (NL), Carl de Keyzer (BE), Disputed Waters (o.a. Johannes Abeling en Ronald de Hommel), Jan Rosseel (BE), Niels Stomps (NL) en Brian Voermans (NL).
ON VIEW: 7th September – 26th October 2014
