Humanity has tamed water to a large extent, just as it has tamed wild animals. We have been able to turn huge waterfalls and cataracts into energy sources, and we have collected rainwater in reservoirs, to tide us over when the rain does not fall. Though all that engineering and water architecture is practically hidden from sight, we can drink water in a glass, swim in pools, pop roses in a vase, contemplate sea creatures in captivity in aquariums, jump over puddles, sing in the rain... EXIT 86 Tamed Waters focuses, precisely, on the uses and interventions that human beings have made on water.

EXIT 86 Tamed Waters begins with an essay by Ciuco Gutiérrez that revolves around his memories and his personal connection with water. In this issue, we have published an large variety of dossiers. Swimming pools, as a great theme within the field of domesticated waters, are shown through the lens of Dean West, Karine Laval, Soo Burnell, who looks at their geometries, Vari Caramés, Francisco Mata Rosas, who takes us to Mexico and shows the swimming pool as a meeting place, Julio Bittencourt, Roberta Sant’Anna, Tomoko Yoneda or Bragi Þór Jósefssonn. The infrastructures that allow us to access water, store it, treat it and move it from one place to another are the subject of the work of photographers Brad Temkin and Stanley Greenberg, who specifically focuses on New York’s infrastructures. Manel Esclusa has a more abstract look at water with his photographs of the water jets of the Magic Fountain of Montjuic in Barcelona and Josep Maria Albero. Rut Blees Luxemburg deals with the poetics of puddles in the dark and how they welcome and reflect the lights of the city. Naoya Hatakeyama and Harold Strak, on the other hand, adress urbanism, rivers and channelings. Pilar Pequeño brings us closer, in great detail, to still lifes, vases and flowers in water. David Goldes thinks about water from the experiment and its link with energy and, finally, Arthur Tress offers us a surreal look with the deployment of his imaginary inside fish tanks.

In Portfolio, the section in which we give space to the most interesting photographers of the new generations, we present Karla Hiraldo Voleau, Sara Perovic, Paula Prats, Rodrigo Roher and Luke Saxon.

Editorial
Rosa Olivares. Liquid Gold

Texts
Ciuco Gutiérrez. Puddles are for stepping in

Central theme artists

Josep Maria Albero, Rut Bless Luxemburg, Julio Bittencourt, Soo Burnell, Vari Caramés, Manel Esclusa, David Goldes, Stanley Greenberg, Naoya Hatakeyama, Karine Laval, Francisco Mata, Pilar Pequeño, Roberta Sant’Anna, Harold Stark, Brad Temkin, Bragi Þór Jósefsson, Arthur Tress, Dean West y Tomoko Yoneda

Portfolio artists

Karla Hiraldo Voleau, Sara Perovic, Paula Prats, Rodrigo Roher y Luke Saxon