UMOR ACQUEO takes shape through water, which becomes a meeting ground for different artistic languages, sensibilities and forms of knowledge.

The exhibition is rooted in an understanding of research as an open-ended process, shaped by relationships and exchanges between experiences that may be worlds apart. Rather than marking the end of a journey, the exhibition itself becomes a space for exploration and shared creation, where each contribution can open up new perspectives and lead to unexpected developments.

Within this web of connections, seven artistic practices come together to explore water not merely as a subject of representation, but through the processes, forms and meanings it generates.

The exhibition thus unfolds as a journey in which environmental and anthropological dimensions intertwine, bringing matter and perception, individual memory and landscape, sensory experience and imagination into dialogue. The practices of Tommaso Franchi, Sonia Giambrone, Eugenio Mininni, Giorgios Papaevangeliu, Riccardo Scibetta, Maria Sky and Elena Urbani form an ecosystem of perspectives in which each work retains its autonomy while contributing to a multifaceted understanding of the relationship between water, landscape and human experience.

A vital current running through bodies and territories, water sustains their balance yet is also capable of disrupting it. It flows, stagnates, erodes and deposits; it opens routes of connection and marks boundaries, preserves traces and erases them.

UMOR ACQUEO invites us to observe water in its many actions and contradictions, through the forms it creates, the traces it leaves and the relationships it reshapes.

An integral part of the project is the documentary Abitare i luoghi dell'acqua. Roma tra il mare e il fiume (Inhabiting Places of Water: Rome Between the Sea and the River, 24 minutes), by Monica Manicone and Maria Luisa Priori, presented at the Pisa Architecture Biennale, Nature. The documentary journeys through the landscapes of the Tiber River and Rome's coastline, extending the dialogue across artistic languages, territories and ways of knowing.

The programme also features a music lecture by Luca Di Bucchianico, La musica e l'acqua. Dal grembo materno al canto delle balene (Music and Water: From the Womb to Whale Song), as part of the closing event on 6 November: a journey through listening that explores the relationship between water, sound and human experience.

Presented by Babel APS and curated by HERscapes, the event launches the association's 2026–2027 exhibition and cultural programme.

Curatorial and project team
Caterina Falotico, Sonia Giambrone, Maria Luisa Priori, Emma Tagliacollo.

PROGRAMME

Saturday 24 October 2026 — Opening

6:30 pm
Opening and introduction to HERscapes
Presentation of the group exhibition UMOR ACQUEO

7:00 pm
Presentation of the HERscapes Atlas and documentary screening
Abitare i luoghi dell'acqua. Roma tra il mare e il fiume (24 minutes)
by Monica Manicone and Maria Luisa Priori