Water as a Carrier of Stories – a Living Archive Preserving Traces of Urban Life. The exhibition SAVE!ING STORIES STORED IN WATER by Marie Jeschke dives into the invisible depths of Berlin’s water systems, bringing the hidden narratives of wastewater to light. Through artistic interventions – including the use of objects, cameras, and collected samples – Jeschke explores the cyclical movement of water and its role as a mediator between city, body, and environment. Her video installations and sculptural glass works transform technical infrastructures into aesthetic spaces of reflection. Dirty, clear, cloudy, foamy, or evaporated – water undergoes constant transformation, yet remains a bearer of collective memory. The exhibition is curated by Gabriela Anco. On the occasion of BERLIN DESIGN WEEK and the opening of Marie Jeschke’s exhibition, LAUFEN space Berlin hosted a talk with the artist, Stephan Dittrich (civil engineer, GSP eG– Cooperative for Self-Managed Projects), Stephan Natz (spokesperson for Berliner Wasserbetriebe), and Elena Bergen (architectural advisor, save! LAUFEN). The conversation explored the potential found in engaging with the seemingly mundane: urine, infrastructure – and designing a livable future. It was an informative and thought-provoking evening. Even during her time as a master student at UdK (Berlin University of the Arts), Marie Jeschke was already focused on water as a subject. In recent years, her interest has increasingly turned to the traces found in water. With industrialization came the desire to control and conceal the bodily. Wastewater systems were pushed out of sight, yet remained essential lifelines of urban life. Jeschke makes these hidden structures visible, offering a new perspective on water as a medium – a carrier of information, a witness to human intervention, and a living organism in constant symbiosis with its surroundings. This also led to the collaboration with Berliner Wasserbetriebe. Today, around 95% of Berlin’s drinking water is sourced within the city itself. Although Berlin is one of the most water-rich cities in Germany, it is simultaneously among the most water-scarce due to climate change – as Stephan Natz explained during the evening. What does this mean for a city once considered a pioneer of urban water infrastructure under Rudolf Virchow, with its radial systems, sewer networks, and treatment plants? What does it mean for resource recovery? What impact do chemical substances or seemingly harmless wet wipes have on the work of the water utilities? And is it still appropriate today to use nine liters of drinking water for a toilet flush? These are also questions that concern Stephan Dittrich, who is taking new approaches in three current projects. The discussion quickly made it clear that Germany urgently needs political decisions to align more closely with sustainability and circular economy leaders like Switzerland. Dittrich works closely with LAUFEN and Elena Bergen on these projects. A key to solving the global problem of wastewater pollution is LAUFEN’s forward-looking urine-diverting toilet save!, developed in cooperation with the Austrian design studio EOOS. Back in 2021, save! won the Design Prize Switzerland in the “Product Consumer” category. This innovative toilet addresses two core challenges: the costly treatment of urine in wastewater and the waste of valuable resources. Based on the principle of “source separation technology,” urine is separated and collected directly in the toilet. This allows for targeted treatment of different wastewater streams and efficient resource recovery. save! also excels in terms of design: the technology is seamlessly integrated, making the toilet barely distinguishable from conventional models – an aspect particularly appreciated by the attending architects, planners, and guests during the talk. At the following get-together with drinks and finger food, the evening's topics continued to spark engaging conversations. The exhibition SAVE!ING STORIES STORED IN WATER is on view at LAUFEN Space Berlin until the end of July 2025.
