Performance at Cloud Dans Lab in Den Haag, 2024
Moving Matter
Moving Matter is an exploration of how the potential for collaboration can move from the practical human world into digital abstraction—and back again.
Here, water serves as a medium and a powerful connector that brings humans, non-humans, and organisations together in the fight for healthy ecosystems—such as drinkable rivers.
Moving Matter is an interactive installation that invites passersby to play with a projection of water. Through a body tracker, their movements are translated into forces that attract and repel digital water particles. These particles obey physical laws—just as we humans do. This is represented by the invisible structure that holds the water in place.These invisible rules invite the audience to explore the connection between themselves—bodies made up of roughly 60% water—and the water’s surface. The effect becomes even stronger when multiple people collaborate.
This project is based on research into the Rights of Nature—and more specifically, the Rights of Water movement. Activist organisations in this field fight for the accessibility and health of ecosystems related to water. By combining protective frameworks such as natural parks and legal personhood, they show that while legislative change is possible, our cultural understanding of the world must evolve at the same time. Without transforming our relationship to concepts such as shared ownership, collaboration, and greed, no amount of restorative justice will be enough.
To address these challenges, we established the Network of European Water Bodies —a collective of organisations across Europe that share the grief of their ecosystems to the point of action. These organisations meet—in confluence—once a year in a different location. Founded in 2023, the network has so far visited the Mar Menor (the first ecosystem in Europe granted legal rights), the Venice Lagoon, the North Sea, and this year, the Spree in Berlin.
Alongside legal studies, we also research the ecological, social, and political frameworks in which we operate.
Code: Josse Vessies
Video & Editing: Albert Rask
Thanks to Isabelle Chaffaud, CloudDans Lab
This project is supported by the
Makersregeling of the Gemeente Den Haag
© 2024, Leon Lapa Pereira
Performance at Cloud Dans Lab in Den Haag, 2024
Aris Leon Lapa Pereira (he/him) is a cross-disciplinary performance researcher exploring the boundaries of performative life. Deeply embedded in the landscape of Artistic Research, his personal practice is consistently informed by philosophical inquiry. By merging mechanical and technical knowledge with performative elements, he engages with multiple disciplines with genuine enthusiasm.
Currently focused on the de-romanticisation of nature, Leon investigates the Rights of Nature—specifically, the rights of water—in collaboration with the Embassy of the North Sea. Through this partnership, he co-founded the Confluence of European Water Bodies, a growing network of activist organisations that support his research into intercultural relationships and intimate connections with water.
Alongside this, he is a curator at the Instrument Inventors Initiative (iii) and co-founder of the WASTELAND Festival, where he leads research and performance curation through an ecological lens. Co-creation and collaboration are not just professional principles for Leon, but also sociological commitments—central to his Resonant Bodies Residencies, where these concepts are deeply explored.
For Leon, co-living is a vital practice that is increasingly endangered by today’s polycrisis. He is, therefore, continually seeking methods and tools to cultivate honest, careful, and communal environments.
