Cuenca hidro-gráfica de Manatí | Manatí’s hydro-graphic basin (2022)
Medium: Installation made with sediments deposited by the flooding from Hurricane Fiona
Dimensions: 216 in. x 120 in. | 548.64 cm. X 304.8 cm.
Assistance in artwork preparation: Carolina Mercado, Rubén Rolando Solla, Carlo André Oliveras Rodríguez, Ricardo Liquet-González, Gianna Del Mastro; & several animals. Documentation by Steve Maldonado Silvestrini.
As the water from a flood recedes and moisture evaporates, cracks are born in the remaining sediment. They remind me of the traces and fissures of natural waterways like streams and rivers, as well as artificial ones like irrigation canals, paths, and roads; all of which divide a territory. While observing a composition of these cracks in the sediment deposited by Hurricane Maria’s floods on some shelves at Casa Manatuabón, I understood that the river is a great crack that runs through the entire territory: connecting, dividing, and defining it. I decided to scale up that ‘self-potrait’ the river had left us, working with the sediments deposited by Hurricane Fiona’s flooding. Although it had not reached the same heights as the previous flood, it had still brought an immense amount of silt and inundated the structures’ surroundings by a few feet.
I mapped out and defined the territory to be intervened. With a custom mold I designed with the river’s form, I imprinted a great crack on the moist earth canvas, the Manatuabón River or The Great Manatí River. Over the course of several days, as the soil dried, it merged with smaller cracks, sometimes becoming their point of origin. The capillary action of the piece allowed small animals to inhabit it, while larger ones left their marks in the form of footprints; both asserting their presence on this territory, which they also inhabit. This work was created and executed, with the help of several collaborators, at the end of 2022. It has been exhibited only at Casa Manatuabón in Manatí for the group exhibition Dinámica Fluvial: Registros de Supervivencia, curated and organized by Barrioization (Rubén Rolando Solla Rosario & Carlo André Oliveras Rodríguez).
This artwork was featured at Dinámica Fluvial: Registros de Supervivencia (River Dynamics: Survival Records), at Casa Manatuabón, Manatí, Puerto Rico. See more in the Dinámica fluvial: registros de supervivencia publication.
*please click on the image to read the caption
Artist Bio
Steve Maldonado Silvestrini is an artist, botanist, and environmental activist from Puerto Rico. He collaborates with communities, environmental organizations, and scientists to protect unique natural sites in the Caribbean. He works in diverse mediums but primarily elaborates site-specific/time-specific works as immersive and interactive installations and sculptures. Through his art, he brings architecture, art, and science to a discussion of the possible futures of the Caribbean, concentrating on different ways of communication and relationships that help in the understanding of our archipelago. Occasionally he writes about art from the Caribbean, with focus on topics such as the environment, emerging traditions, and subcultures.
Everywhere (Instagram, Substack, iNaturalist) as @stevemaldonadosilvestrini | https://www.instagram.com/stevemaldonadosilvestrini
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