Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle Well 41°47'25"N - 87°37'38"W, 2020 Stainless steel, reclaimed pine, polycarbonate 66” x 11” x 1 ¾”
The following are proposals for Well at Sweet Water Foundation. Manglano-Ovalle uses climate, territory and water as a medium. He has installed various iterations of Well in different sites and contexts across the globe. Each proposed well, attempted or completed, functioning or dysfunctional, blurs the line between sculpture and utility. When is a well a well? When is a well a work of art? Each well is an earthwork as well as a platform for performing: an art object that, upon completion, transfers its ownership immediately from the artist to the property or community where it has been drilled. It is complete only when used – when its water is pumped, consumed, and (most importantly) shared. Well is at once completely local and completely global. Its content: land and public resources, entry and access, and yes, rights – rights determined by borders and bodies (judicial, political, corporate) set up to grant or deny access to a resource. Our bodies are mostly water. We replenish this substance each day; each day we cycle it back. It comes from the ground beneath us or travels great distances to reach us, be it in pipes, aqueducts, translucent plastic – or a work of art, such as the iteration of Well to be installed at Sweet Water in the summer of 2021.