WATER LINES

A monumental wooden installation takes place in the Jardins de la Fontaine. It is the result of the collaboration between two artists and architects from different generations. Their respective structures – an aqueduct for Feda Wardak, an aerial gutter for Tadashi Kawamata – draw two water lines in the landscape, diverting water from its usual course and giving it an adventure. The water seems to emerge from elsewhere, in an evocation of Nemausus, the sacred spring that gave Nîmes its name and around which the city was founded. Although the two artistic interventions are distinct, they come together: it is Feda Wardak, the younger, who passes the water to his elder. The ensemble pays homage to ancestral water transport techniques, and to certain construction principles less used today, as illustrated by the curved arch designed by young members of the Compagnons du Devoir de Nîmes on the aqueduct. Its use is reminiscent of a nearby architectural masterpiece for which arches had to be made: the Pont du Gard, the monumental part of a Roman aqueduct built in the 1^st century. By revealing the hidden side of water, the two artists help us to understand its inner workings, while opening up avenues for reflection on the management and transmission of this essential resource, as well as on the techniques and works needed to preserve it.