What remainswhen waterdisappears?
An artistic research project by Bandi Szidonia
With waterWithout water01The absence of water
Water is present only as an image.
There is no real water in the installation.
A mirror replaces the pool. An artificial image reconstructs the visual presence of water.
The ceiling is not a print. It is an LED surface or a projection: moving water that slowly turns into desert — and the mirror below repeats the change.
The viewer sees water without having access to water.
The image becomes a memory of a resource that is physically absent.
02A future image
What remains when a resource survives only as an image?
The installation is a speculative environment from the near future. It imagines a world in which natural resources remain culturally and visually present — reproduced, displayed, remembered — while becoming physically scarce.
The visitor recognises water and remembers water. But what stands in front of them is a reflection of an image: water as simulation, as memory, as surface.
03Cactus as human
The body remembers the environment.
The cactus sculptures appear to be formed from dry, cracked earth. They are not decorative and not botanical. They are bodies — shaped by extreme conditions.
In Bandi Szidonia’s doctoral research, the cactus stands for the human being: a body that adapts, stores, protects and transforms in order to survive.
It is not a symbol of strength. It shows that survival itself leaves traces on the body. When the environment changes, the body changes with it.
- Adaptation
- Resilience
- Vulnerability
- Storage
- Protection
- Transformation
- Survival
How much of us is adaptation?
What do we become when the environment changes?
04Sustainability
What do we understand only after it disappears?
RealitySimulation
ResourceMemory
NatureArtificial image
PresenceAbsence
AdaptationLoss
The work does not explain. It lets the visitor see water, and withholds it — so that what is missing can be felt before it is understood.
05Doctoral research
Doctoral Research
The research examines the cactus as a symbol of the human being and investigates the relationship between body, environment, adaptation, resilience, memory and survival.
What Remains When Water Disappears? is both an artistic work and a research instrument. It combines sculpture, space, reflection, artificial water imagery, the human body, materiality and perception — and uses the visitor’s experience as the site where the research question is tested.
The goal is not a definitive explanation. The installation is built to generate questions.
06Support the project
Support the Project
The installation is in development as part of a doctoral research project at the West University of Timișoara. To be realised, it needs partners who share an interest in contemporary art, artistic research and the questions this work raises.
Support may be financial or in kind: a projector, mirror panels, materials. Every partner is credited in the exhibition and its documentation.
What the installation needs
5,000 €
12 weeks from the start of production
01 Sculpture
- Materials for four cactus sculptures, hand-sewn by the artist800 €
- Floor mirror, 18 m² acrylic700 €
- Stainless steel pool ladder350 €
02 Image
- Projector, 5,000 lumens450 €
- Projection screen with frame, below the ceiling300 €
- Two images and music: water and desertArtist
03 Build & documentation
- Craftsman: frames, mirror floor, screen, set-up and dismantling1,500 €
- Transport300 €
- Photo and video documentation400 €
- Reserve200 €
- Light and exhibition roomGallery
Light and room are provided by the gallery. Estimates for Romania, confirmed with supplier quotes. Support in kind — a projector, mirror panels, a craftsman’s days — lowers the amount.
Potential partners
Companies · Sponsors · Galleries · Foundations · Cultural institutions
Project dossier
Download the dossier (PDF)Become a Partner
Companies, galleries and foundations are invited to get in touch, whether with funding or with materials and equipment.