Shiori Watanabe (1984)

Sans room, 2017-present.

Aquariums, irrigation tank, hose, pump, bacteria, rice, substrate.

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Inspired by the famous excerpt from Claude Lévi-Strauss's book Tristes Tropiques — “The world began without man and will end without him” —, the work Sans room, by Shiori Watanabe, proposes to imagine a system “without” (sans, in French) the active action of human beings, or apart from them, where other forms of life coexist interdependently.

Shiori Watanabe (1984) is a Tokyo-based artist. In 2017, she created this installation, conceived based on organisms collected in the Fukiage Garden, located on the grounds of the Tokyo Imperial Palace – where she used to play as a child. The locale is known for its biodiversity and for being a practically untouched natural space, even right in the center of a large metropolis. Considered a biological refuge, its preservation is partly due to the fact that it remained closed to the public for decades, which allowed for the development of its own ecosystem.

Instigated by this place that survives among humans, but in limited interaction with them, Watanabe brings together fish, plants that have grown spontaneously, bacteria and rocks, organizing them in water tanks connected by hoses, forming a closed artificial ecosystem, supported by the continuous circulation of water.

In the version presented in this exhibition, the elements have been rethought: microscopic bacteria inhabit one aquarium, rice crops are developing in another and volcanic rocks compose the geological scenario. The lighting that envelops the room was designed to stimulate plant growth, also ensuring the survival and proper functioning of the system as a whole.

Displayed in the context of an exhibit dedicated to water, Sans room allows readings that relate the water resource and its circulation to the essence of life which, in order to exist and perpetuate itself, depends on this continuous flow. What seems to be at stake is not just a natural resource, but the very possibility of life in a posthuman world.