BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) presents a multimedia dance performance, “The Water Runs Through It: Tools for Water,” on Friday, Sept. 12, at 7:30 p.m. Presented in connection with the exhibition “Making Space,” the performance will be followed by a discussion and Q&A. Admission is free; registration is recommended, but walk-ins are welcome. Register at brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124 x101.
The performance brings together visual artists Michelle Samour and Sue Rees with activists and dancers Souleymane Badolo and Abdoul Aziz Dermé. It is based on an installation by Samour that covers one large wall of the museum, as part of “Making Space.” The installation features dozens of handmade divining rods — Y-shaped tree branches traditionally used to locate underground water. Both Samour’s installation and the Sept. 12 performance explore issues related to water access and the ways in which power and politics shape resource distribution.
“My ongoing work draws on my Palestinian ancestral past to examine how the Israeli government’s control over water access in the occupied territories is used to disempower and disenfranchise communities,” Samour said. “My art explores the intersections among science, technology, and the natural world and the socio-political consequences of redefining borders and boundaries.”
Both Badolo and Dermé have addressed water scarcity in their home country of Burkina Faso — Badolo through activism and investigations into Indigenous divination practices that have led to the repair and construction of numerous wells, and Dermé by collaborating with an organization that has created six wells in six villages.
“Making Space” is on view at BMAC through Nov. 2.
BMAC is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Brattleboro Subaru, C&S Wholesale Grocers, and Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters.
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