Sound track and video piece,

1h 16′, 1280 x 720, color, stereo, Italy, Simona Da Pozzo and Roberto Fiorentini 2026

Piece realized in the frame of Atlas dei Corpi research project and performance presented in the frame of the World River Day and the European Heritage Days 2026.

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River water is both matter and a sonic environment: the chemical structure of every drop of river water takes on a specific form depending on the events it passes through, on every relationship it forges (with every animal, every plant, every mechanical rumble, every tributary, every city, every industrial outflow).

From its source, this sonic fabric accumulates, intertwines and expands, travelling at the speed of underwater sound—5,300 km per hour—all the way to the sea, where the sound continues to propagate for years.

Maas Goddess | Rivers as ancestors and other realities translates the water of the Rhine into a duration: one hour and 16′ minutes. This is the time it ideally takes for the sound to travel the entire length of the river from source to mouth, transforming geography into a ‘duration’ to be heard.

The translation takes place through underwater recordings and sound editing that place the listener in a specific position, one in which they become ‘bodies amongst the bodies’ of the river: “at the midpoint between the riverbanks, we float on our backs, halfway between the bottom and the surface. At night, under a full moon and a clear sky, we feel the hulls, silhouetted against the light, shaking us.”

The video visualises and replicates the structure of the score: this mirrors the structure of the Nile River’s catchment area, tracing the tributaries and artificial barriers that dot its course.