Dirty Water Initiative: solar collectors and water bottles

The U.S. art collective SIMPARCH began their investigative process by working with one of Tijuana's informal communties in collaboration with the Fundación Esperanza. They became especially interested in the threme of water, in particular the idea of purifying water using solar-based water distillation. The project, entitled "Dirty Water Initiative," has two phases: the first stage is to construct and install a small purification plant as a "public fountain" sited in the pedestrian walkway from San Ysidro to Tijuana at the U.S./Mexico port of entry; the second stage involves the donation of the distillation facility to an informal community in Tijuana. The deployment of these solar distillers, sealed in glass, more than an aesthetic effect at the urban scale, seeks to stimulate reflection about the problem of water, and the importance of researching ecological solutions that could achieve a direct impact at the community level within poor, informal settlements. --inSite_05

• 2005

• SIMPARCH

• InSite_05

• Ragasol, Tania (Mexican art historian and curator)

This image was extracted from a CD-R from the InSite Archive (MSS 707, Box 197)

San Ysidro (San Diego, Calif.)

Tijuana (Baja California, Mexico)

metal; plate glass; bottles; water

• InSite_05

• Mexican-American border region

• Fountains
• Installations (visual works)
• Public art
• Sculpture (visual work)

• Border art
• Boundaries
• Education
• Health
• Political art
• Poverty
• Technology
• Water treatment plants
• Water--Purification

• image

• No linguistic content; Not applicable

Shared Shelf: 18432104

Online finding aid

• inSite Archive

Architecture and City Planning

Science, Technology and Industry

Sculpture and Installations

born digital

[Title, Date]. InSite Archive. MSS 707. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Unknown (US)

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2024-10-10