We Passed Through Earth Lightly as Water

We Passed Through Earth Lightly is the title of a legendary book published in 1996 by Sardinian writer Sergio Atzeni. It reconstructs the remote past of his island without resorting to the language of historians by reimagining that of ancient storytellers, who passed names, stories, and knowledge from one generation to the next. The novel’s perspective is long-durational and attuned to the interconnectedness of all things natural. “We passed through earth lightly as water, as water that runs, springs, down from the basin full of the fountain, slides and winds among moss and ferns, up to the roots of cork and almond trees, and goes slowly down rocks, mountains and hills to the valley, in streams to the river, slowing down towards the swamps and the sea, asked by the sun to become vapor and wind dominated cloud and blessed rain.”
 
Re-reading the book in preparation for this trip, we found a reference to Tharros. Last summer, we anchored in front of the Phoenician city’s ruins while sailing as part of a trip for the Ocean Fellowship organized by our generous host, the Sardinian Film Commission. That same summer, The Current III  brought us together as a group of walkers moving in silence as a “wavy line” along the shores of the Venetian Lagoon, guided by the artist Giorgio Andreotta Calò. The summer of 2022 now brings us together with artists Derek MF Di Fabio (a member of the Cherimus Association, based in Perdaxius, Sardinia), Raffaela Naldi Rossano, Petrit Halilaj, and Alvaro Urbano, together with a group of young animators along the shores of the island of Asinara, just off the western tip of Sardinia, to weave together new collaborations, walk along the Mediterranean Sea, and adjust our positions to be closer to its waves.
 
The island of Asinara has a rich and layered past rooted in prehistorical eras. In The Excursion of One Eager to Penetrate the Horizons, the world map (known as Tabula Rogeriana) created in 1154 for the Normand king Roger II of Sicily by the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi, it is called Gazîrat ‘umm ‘alhimâr (the mother-of-donkeys’ island). Today, its only residents are more-than-humans living in a natural park and marine protected area; humans are allowed to inhabit the island only temporarily. Since 1885, its community was forced to move to Stintino, across the strait that separates Asinara from the rest of Sardinia. At the time, the island was divided into two areas: one for quarantine, the other for incarceration, a quintessential experiment of clinical discipline and punishment, as Michel Foucault would call it. “Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?” he asked.
 
We situate our gazes here, also to reflect on zoning, borders, and disciplinary demarcations in relation to climate change in the Mediterraneans, below and above water. We try to learn about the marine, terrestrial, and aerial animals who pass through this island lightly—the migratory birds, whales, dolphins, turtles, donkeys and horses—and ask the scientists and researchers who investigate their lives and habits how they perceive this ongoing shifts. Change moves fast, so how to adapt to it, while being immersed in its current?

Derek MF Di Fabio, (Cherimus Association), artist
Petrit Halilaj, artist
Raffaela Naldi Rossano, artist
Alvaro Urbano, artist
Riccardo Atzeni (NAS - New Animation in Sardinia, Cagliari), animator
Erica Meloni, (NAS), animator
Barbara Pirisi, (NAS), animator
Matteo Porcu, (NAS), animator
Micaela Deiana, Sardinian Film Commission, curator
Barbara Pau, Sardinian Film Commission, photographer
Barbara Casavecchia, leader of The Current III
Markus Reymann, Director of TBA21–Academy

Supported by Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission

With the working title "Mediterraneans: ‘Thus waves come in pairs’ (after Etel Adnan),” the first stream of The Current III cycle is led by Barbara Casavecchia as a transdisciplinary and transregional exercise in sensing and learning with by supporting situated projects, collective pedagogies, and voices along the Mediterranean shores across art, culture, science, conservation, and activism.