Water and Democracy: Cultural Labs for Territorial Participation in the Aniene Valley
Associazione Collettivo L’Aquila Reale E.T.S.
Italy
Water and Democracy is a site-specific project by Museo dell’Aquila Reale / Collettivo L’Aquila Reale, a rural socio-cultural centre with a physical space in Licenza, in the Aniene Valley, Central Italy. Rooted in our role within the Contratto di Fiume dell’Aniene, it combines contemporary art, citizen science and participatory practice to turn water into a democratic commons. Through riverbank and boat-based sessions, collective mapping and public restitution, it links ecological awareness, local memory, territorial care, shared responsibility and civic participation around a common good.
Water and Democracy: Cultural Labs for Territorial Participation in the Aniene Valley is a site-specific project that adapts our previous art-and-water research into a civic participation framework. Starting from the Aniene River and local water bodies, it creates spaces where artists, residents, young people and local actors reflect together on access, care, memory, environmental change and the right to shape the future of the territory. The programme activates one transversal action within the Contratto di Fiume dell’Aniene through situated river sessions—on the riverbank and by boat—combining observation, listening, dialogue and ecological restoration, alongside participatory workshops, collective mapping and public sharing. Rather than treating water only as an environmental topic, the project approaches it as a democratic commons: a field where different forms of knowledge meet, where conflicts and inequalities become visible, and where culture supports dialogue, imagination and community-led action. The grant will strengthen this action by expanding public visibility, artistic mediation and the contribution of local knowledge to future river governance and territorial care.