Daniela Medina Poch ■

Protected: trace that leaves no trace

[work in progress]
We Look for Fire but We Need Water
Aqualiteracies from Antarctica

 

We Seek Fire, But What We Need is Water: Aqualiteracies from Antarctica is a research framework by artist Daniela Medina Poch, developed within the 12th Colombian Antarctic Expedition (February 2026) as part of PAAC, the Colombian Artistic Program in Antarctica.

The project explores Antarctic waters from a plural, relational, and transtemporal perspective — water as both bioindicator and carrier of memory — approaching it through an expanded spectrum of forms of knowledge and sensibilities. It reflects on the agency of water, particularly ice, as a living archive of the planet, and considers the concept of the Hydrocene: an era in which water shapes life as we know it.

Furthermore, the work investigates the tension between nation-state interests (“fire”) and the conditions necessary for the survival of both humans and the planet (“water”). The framework also explores how technologies of consciousness and social imagination can serve as pathways — and even catalysts — for affection and care toward a territory that remains largely inaccessible.

Through this project, I engagee with more-than-human agencies in relation to national agendas and processes of ecological transformation. I ask how imagination can become a technology of empathy, and how artistic practice can nurture aqualiteracies: an expanded form of literacy that enables us to read, feel, and act with water as teacher and collaborator.

Works:

along my shadow
Daniela Medina Poch
Performance gesture, 2:13
Antarctica, 2026

On a sunny day in Antarctica, I approach penguins with my human shadow.

A Trace that Leaves no Trace
Daniela Medina Poch
Performance gesture, 0:59
Antarctica, 2026

Following previous foot steps in Deception Island, Antarctica, I try to walk without leaving further trace.

Waving a Transparent Flag… and accidental Blue Light
Daniela Medina Poch
Performance gesture
Antarctica, 2026

Semi-Scientific Knowledge by an Artist Near the South Pole
Daniela Medina Poch
Diagrams in canvas
Antarctica, Berlin, 2026

Letter to Antarctica
Daniela Medina Poch
Poem and video
Antarctica, 2026

 

Metaprotesting Metaprotesting Metaprotesting

Opposite of Time is Imagination –  shuuuuusuuuuishui –  The Anarchy of Sheep –  Climate Songs for the Supermarket –  Sustaining Softness amidst Thistles and Snakes –  geolistening shelter –  Das Zentrum von Gestern, die Splitter von heute –  ARDE, homage to reparation processes –  Reset (Chimeric) –  Cuerpo Colectivo –  embodiedclimateagency.net –  estuary thinking –  Intersecting Mediterranean(s) –  What do Snails Think About Nuclear Power Plants? –  Atlantic, Mediterranean, Collision, Coalition –  Environmental Matrix –  If You Listen to Nettles, They Won’t Sting You –  Staying with the Wonder –  The Land of Thunder and Lightning  –  Becoming Anti-Monuments –  Tamed Sirens of the Rhine –  Aqualiteracies –  Babel Media Art –  A Good Listener Knows That Knowledge is Everywhere, And –  Fictions / Facts –  We Want You –  Ciudad Anfibia –  Beyond the Döner –  Artistic Negotiations with a Bank –  1m² Parque la Independencia –  Papel Soberano –  Unitedstater –  A Picture with a Latina –  Metaprotesting –  Public Complaint Office –  Wiping Out My National Identity