Perpetual Flow: the impressive land art piece created by Jorge Rodríguez- Gerada in the desert near Ouarzazate (Morocco) to bring attention to the importance of waste water management.
Commissioned for the 2019 Lavazza Calendar ‘Good to Earth’
The artwork
‘Perpetual Flow’, Gerada’s first large scale artwork in Morocco, extends over 37,500 square meters – the equivalent to 5 soccer fields – and was created using rakes, stones found at the site and 36 tons of dark gravel from a nearby quarry.
The work was created with the help of local assistants, high-tech geo-location equipment and drones.
Running water flows between the fingers of two huge hands in a “perpetual flow”, symbolizing the success of the amazing project in Ouarzazate that now re-uses waste water to create a greenbelt around the city in order to protect it from sandstorms.
The environment
Ouarzazate is a city located south of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. It is known as the door to the Sahara and will soon be surrounded by a greenbelt protecting it from sandstorms.
This natural barrier requires innovative irrigation systems that deploy purified wastewater, improving the quality of life for Ouarzazate’s inhabitants who have found new recreational spaces and a reason to protect the local environment and the biodiversity that it contains.
Good to Earth‘Good to Earth’ is the name of the 2019 Lavazza Calendar, now in it ́s 27th edition. Lavazza is a company established in 1895 in Turin which operates in more than 90 countries around the world.
The initiative, curated by Francesca Lavazza and developed with the creative direction of Armando Testa consists of 6 art installations in nature, distributed around 4 continents and set within different environments, forests, deserts, glaciers and cities.
The nature art created by internationally famous urban artists Hula (Switzerland), Mantra (Kenya), Saype (Colombia), Gómez (Thailand), Millo (Belgium) and Gerada (Morocco) was developed using only techniques that have zero impact onthe landscape and the ecosystem and can only be described as a ‘process of co-creation with the environment’.
Ami Vitale
Ami Vitale is a National Geographic photojournalist, Nikon ambassador and winner of six World Press Photo Awards. She is highly regarded throughout the world for her for her ability to describe and experience the surreal beauty of nature. Ami documenting the development of the creative process as well as the final results, capturing the art through her artful lens.
“Today we have a great need for positive art that isn’t an end in itself, but that leaves a mark, inspires people and stirs consciences” Francesca Lavazza
“Good to Earth establishes an artistic balance between nature art and photographic narrative” Michele Mariani, Executive Creative Director at Armando Testa
“The art displayed in Good to Earth talks to us about the future of nature, which is the future ofall of us, because while we need nature to survive, nature doesn’t need us” Ami Vitale
“My work focuses on how to strike a balance between humankind and nature, how to craft a future where our impact will not be negative. It is not too late to rediscover harmony” Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada
About the artist
Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist born in Cuba in 1966, and raised in the United States. His work is mainly created at large scale in urban spaces around the world such as the United States, Morocco, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Argentina, France, the UK, Spain, etc. He was a founding member of the Culture Jamming movement during the early 90s in New York, with the groups ‘Artfux’ and ‘Cicada Corps of Artists,’ altering billboards and advertising on the street.
In 1997, he starts his solo career, moving to Barcelona in 2002, where he started his ‘Identity Series,’ a series of large scale, ephemeral pieces created using charcoal. From that point on, he begins to develop his ‘Terrestrial Series’ (huge works, also of an ephemeral nature) created on the ground, and of such a magnitude that they maybe seen from space. Among his other projects are the ‘Identity Composite Series’, and smaller-format pieces for the gallery exhibitions such as the ‘Fragment Series’, ‘Urban Analogies Series,’ and the ‘Memorylythics series.’ Since 2009 he has also been the curator of the urban art festival Avant Garde Tudela, in Navarra Spain. Gerada has also collaborated in a numerous cultural projects and exhibitions.
