Works by Nancy Holt are included in the exhibition Something in the Water, on view at MAXXI | Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, in Rome, Italy. The exhibition includes Holt's unfinished film Niagara. In July of 1975, Nancy Holt used her 16mm Bolex film camera to capture the rushing waters and massive waterfalls of the Niagara River—near her recently completed work Hydra’s Head, which had been built the previous year at Artpark along the banks of the river. Holt intended to edit this footage into a film, but midway through the process she halted the project because she found the material to be “too beautiful.” Also on display is the artist’s drawing of Hydra’s Head, which maps the positions of the circular water reflecting pools embedded in the earth in the form of the constellation Hydra for her earthwork of the same name.

From MAXXI: Something in the Water is a new chapter in Oscar Tuazon’s Water School project, which explores the power dynamics that regulate access to the planet’s raw materials. Tuazon’s architectural projects—often reminiscent of experimental architectures—are spaces for collaboration and learning, as well as places for working with other artists or with the audience. At MAXXI, Tuazon’s works interact with those of fourteen other artists. His new production, entitled Ocean Pavilion, is a physical device, an activator of consciousness where water acts as a filter through which to see the world. Starting from the visual allure of the course of the Tiber River, the works in the gallery inhabit the river’s imaginary bends, and the theme of water enters the exhibition to trace the role it plays in our economic, political and social life.

This artistic and educational initiative explores the dynamics and politics related to access to land, water, and infrastructure. It is an all-encompassing practice of creating spaces for encounters and collaboration.

Featuring works by: Lita Albuquerque, Saif Azzuz, Matthew Barney, Christo, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Torkwase Dyson, Leslie Hewitt, Nancy Holt, Pavlo Makov, Virginia Overton, Marjetica Potrč, Ugo Rondinone, Peter Sandbichler, Anna Sew Hoy, Oscar Tuazon.
Curated by Oscar Tuazon
Associate curator Elena Motisi