Dominic Hislop

A transcendental approach to water privatisation - reworking John Cage’s ‘Water Walk’
(a musical composition first performed in 1959) in a domestic setting.

Props: Stopwatch, polaroid camera, mechanical dolphin, mechanical fish, party popper, water pistol, bubbles blower, iron, screwdriver, glass, metal pail, potted plant, stepladder, water carbonator, coffee creamer, rubber duck, ice crusher, wooden duck call, plastic duck call, bottle of whisky, cooking pot with lid, sink filled with water, shower, toilet flush, acoustic guitar, ice cubes, washing machine.

Framed Pictures: Gérard Mestrallet, (Chairman and CEO of SUEZ - French based multinational utilities corporation, who along with Vivendi [France] and RWE-AG [Germany] - at their current rate of expansion - are predicted to control 70% of the water market by the end of the decade); Medha Patkar (activist protesting against the displacement of villagers as a result of the construction of the Narmada dam, India); Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (CEO of Nestlé – Swiss based multinational corporation, owner of 75 bottled water brands); Oscar Olivera (activist leading uprising against water privatisation in Cochabamba, Bolivia, resulting in termination of the contract with US utilities corporation, Bechtel, and water being returned to public ownership); Captain John Komba (Tanzanian performer of the world’s first privatization song and video - funded by UK government development aid); Anti-privatisation protest banner, Ghana; Children carrying water, India; Various commercial bottled water.

Stenciled text: ‘You’re Going To Love The Future’ (slogan from SUEZ commercial); ‘There Is No Alternative’ (Margaret Thatcher on privatisation); ‘Enormous Growth Potential’ (German Minister of the Economy, Wolfgang Branoner on the partial privatization of Berlin’s water supply); ‘7,000 x more expensive’ (Arizona Daily Star investigated cost difference between Tucson municipal water supplies and municipal sourced Aquafina [Pepsi] bottled water, August 2007); ‘Human Right’ (disputed terminology for water), ‘Shrinking Resource’ (only 1% [and shrinking] of the world’s water is available for drinking); ‘£273,000 Adam Smith Development Pop’ (amount of UK development aid paid to UK consultants Adam Smith International to make a pop song and video in Tanzania to persuade public of need to privatize Tanzania’s water supply).

Plastic bottles with labels: ‘Pure Life’ (Nestlé’s international water brand – 2nd most sold bottled water in the world and derived from municipal water supplies), ‘RWE / Thames’ (UK private water supplier known for huge water wastage through leaks) ‘Buy Water’ (reference to Biwater, the UK based private water company who won the privatization contract in Tanzania then 2 years later were kicked out after increasing prices whilst failing to create new connections or improve service); ‘Bolivar Water’ (reference to successful struggle against water privatization on Bolivia).

Dictaphone 1: Yves-Thibault de Silguy, Senior Executive Vice President of Suez Water speaking on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s website.
Dictaphone 2: Maude Barlow, author of ‘Blue Gold: The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the World's Water Supply’ interviewed on Everywoman.
CD 1: Tanzanian singer Captain John Komba - “Ubinafsishaji” (“Privatisation”) – Pro-privatisation Song and video with lyrics written by Adam Smith International (a UK consultancy / think tank) funded by £273,000 from the UK government’s Department for International Development (DfID).
CD 2: Patra - “Amanzi Ngawethu” (“The water is ours”) anti-water privatsation song from South Africa.
Cassette recorder: PJ Harvey “Water”

Thanks to: Betül Merve Tekoglu for camera and assistance.