The motto of the Tollwood Summer Festival:
“WATER – PURE LIFE”
As part of the 2023 Summer Festival, Tollwood is dedicating itself to the vital resource of water and making it tangible: water is life.
Water is life. Too little or too much water in the form of drought or flooding, however, brings destruction. These extremes are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Protecting water as a vital resource is crucial for all of us – humans, animals and nature. Water is essential for life.
Access to water – a human right
Only one percent of all water resources worldwide are available as drinking water. Access to safe water and sanitation is a human right and is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Yet 2.2 billion people worldwide still do not have regular access to clean water and around 785 million people do not even have a basic supply of drinking water.
In addition, population growth, urbanisation, environmental pollution and climate change are increasing the pressure on global water resources and water ecosystems. Climate researchers are convinced that in the course of global warming, extreme weather events will become more frequent and thus extreme droughts and floods will also increase. The hot summer of 2022 or the flood catastrophe in the Ahr valley indicate what people in Germany may also be facing. 184 people died in this disaster, the amount of damage is estimated at 33 billion euros – the most expensive natural disaster in Germany to date.
Tollwood presents the extremes
Tollwood is putting the vital resource of water at the centre of the 2023 summer festival: The entrance artwork “Gate between Worlds” by Andrey von Schlippe shows the water cycle and makes it possible to experience first-hand how water can refresh and invigorate. The result is an atmospheric place for the senses that shows and lets us experience that water is life.
The environmental art installation “Out of Balance” by Veronika Angloher and Adam Stubley brings the extremes of water into focus: when it leads to flooding and drought – and thus destroys life. Stories and faces of extreme flood or drought events are told there. “It is now up to us to curb climate change and to deal sustainably with the precious resource of water. There is much we can do to keep water in balance and give us life, first and foremost: protect the climate. This is the greatest and most urgent task of our time,” emphasises Daniela Schmid, responsible at Tollwood for the Man & Environment projects.
As part of the HoMaBiLe project, Tollwood invites you to dive in. An installation makes water a sensual experience and explains the true price of this valuable foodstuff.
