Bisitariak. Anne-Laure Boyer + MawatreS

Presentation of Atlas Oculto and Sant Roma de Sau, two projects that look at the consequences suffered by places flooded as the result of the creation of reservoirs. The traces of stories in structures built on nature. Here is a brief description of the two works:

Atlas Oculto:
The Bordeaux artist Anne Laure Boyer presents her project Atlas Oculto, the story of what she discovered in her artistic investigation into the stories behind the construction of reservoirs and the consequent flooding of more than a hundred Spanish villages during the 20th century.

Atlas Oculto is an artistic project that explores the imaginary aspects of these submerged worlds and, therefore, the relationship between people and time, the forgotten and the lost, and the process of constructing collective memory.

It is a project that uses mobility to link the villages affected locally in different parts of a country. It is put together in the manner of a puzzle which, in the end, bears witness to the ability to maintain identity, beyond environmental and social declines. It tries to show the consequences of a desire to control nature instead of trying to understand it better to achieve harmonious integration. Given the crisis of values shaking contemporary Spain, the effects of such a consensus are vitally important. In addition to this raising of awareness, this project wants to pay homage to the populations affected and support their descendants.

Sant Roma de Sau:
Polvo y barro.
It's now more than 50 years since the gates were closed. Coincidentally, on the 50th anniversary of this event, this project, whose aim was to latently recreate the life ripped out of the town of Sant Romá de Sau buried by the Sau reservoir, was created.

The project was developed on different levels, absorbing every new piece of information, uncovered event or forgotten situation. The conversion with the witnesses to the event, context and history is vital. Memory replaces the archive. Words replace text. The project was later duplicated because Sant Romá de Sau is not just a flooded village, it's also a duplicated name. It is its own twin and brother to many others. A village submerged in the depths of an office full of mud, a painful chapter in a recent history we're all heirs to.