Thrist. Who owns water?

Following the success of the Horizon Contemporary Prize and the launch of Envie Gallery in South Africa, Art Confidential is developing a new series of curatorial projects and travelling exhibitions across the country. Envie is conceived as a nomadic gallery, creating meaningful dialogues between contemporary art, local contexts, and international artistic perspectives.

Art Confidential is responsible for the curatorial direction of these exhibitions. Led by Hortense d’Hardemare, founder of Art Confidential, each project brings together artists around a carefully researched theme, creating connections between diverse practices, mediums, and cultural backgrounds. The exhibitions are developed through a curatorial approach that combines artistic excellence, critical reflection, and accessibility.

From January to March 2027, Envie Gallery will travel through Johannesburg, Cape Town, and the Garden Route, presenting a series of exhibitions in unique locations across South Africa. Each exhibition is designed as a temporary encounter between artists, audiences, and places, fostering new conversations and expanding the reach of contemporary art beyond traditional gallery spaces.

Thirst is a travelling exhibition conceived by Envie Gallery that explores one of the most urgent questions of our time: who owns water? Drawing on the South African context—where access to water remains deeply shaped by environmental, social, and political inequalities—the exhibition examines water not only as a vital resource, but also as a space of memory, power, vulnerability, and connection.

Bringing together contemporary artists working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, and mixed media, Thirst unfolds through four interconnected themes: Hydrohumanities, which reimagines our relationship to water as a shared living presence; Hydrofeminism, which explores the interconnectedness of bodies and ecosystems; Dry Futures, which reflects on scarcity and the realities of climate change; and Hydrocommons, which addresses questions of water justice and collective responsibility.

Through poetic, immersive, and thought-provoking works, the exhibition invites visitors to reconsider their relationship with water and to imagine new ways of living together in an increasingly fragile world. Conceived as a nomadic project, Thirst will travel across South Africa, creating dialogues between contemporary art, local realities, and global environmental challenges.