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Some time ago, and as part of my interest in water and climate change, I began to put together a series of images following my research on the ‘Water Trips’ (qanāts or water-supply systems) of Madrid. The city and water have a close relationship, embodied in an ancient motto: "I was built on water, my walls are made of fire.” The first part is a reference to the many underground streams that once flowed under the Islamic Mayrit ─the first settlement that later became Madrid. According to historians, the word ‘Mayrit’ would also refer to those water courses and would mean ‘place of many springs.’ 

 

In the 19th century, Madrid doubled its population. For this reason, the Water Trips were insufficient to supply the demand of the city's inhabitants. To solve the problem, it was decided to transport water from the Lozoya River, located in the mountains, to the capital city. Later, more groundwater bodies and a number of rivers were included as sources in the supply system of both city and region through the construction of reservoirs.

 

Motivated by an interest in and curiosity about the natural environment of those rivers, I began to visit them and somehow go back to the origins of nature through images. The idea stemmed from a need to contemplate nature and have an inner dialogue with its most important elements. As I see it, the natural world, in its purest state, takes us back to a place from which we have been expelled by centuries of modernity and so-called ‘progress’.

 

At the same time, I agree with the Buddhist view that rejects dualism in the world. According to it, there is no distinction between beautiful and ugly in nature, but rather an underlying harmony among living things.  Thus, in relation to the aesthetic concept behind this work, I have tried to document places with an abundance of water and others with a scarcity of it, as an attempt to call attention to climate change and its effects on water resources.