Water Spells attest to the multiple and ubiquitous nature of water. From their different dimensions—articulated, tense, or in conflict—the text and the images gathered here constitute a key for deciphering, critiquing, and even defending against the asymmetries in the diverse conceptions of water we employ or that are foisted on us. In this sense, they’re also a tool to inhabit the quintessential contradiction of metropolitan water’s courses: it is one and many, it’s close and distant, an intimate bond to the territory and a simultaneous extraneousness. We who drink and pour water throughout this city are also a part of this turbulent cycle, and thus the contradiction courses through us as well: the water we drink runs through our bodies and lives in them. The present invocations may suggest, if we allow them, a calling to the water inside us, so we may connect with that water continuum that had been withheld from us.

Adriana Salazar is a Colombian artist based in Mexico. Her work is transdisciplinary, collaborative, and research oriented. It identifies entanglements between nature and culture within certain Latin American cities. She holds a bachelor’s of fine arts with honors from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Colombia; a master’s in philosophy from Javeriana University, Colombia; and a doctorate in art and design from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. She recently published Lake Texcoco: Encyclopedia of Things Living and Dead, with the support of the Jumex Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Ministry of Culture of Colombia.