The project begins with the notion of genius loci — the spirit of place. Across European folk traditions, rivers, springs, and still waters have often been imagined as inhabited by liminal feminine presences, such as the Slavic rusałka or the Portuguese moura encantada. Rather than appearing as fixed figures, these beings remain as cultural echoes of a shared intuition: that water holds presence, memory, and the capacity for transformation. Within the installation, these presences are not represented but dispersed into material conditions. Through its unique material composition of clay, embedded small hematite beads, and other symbolic elements, each basin becomes a localised expression of this invisible presence, translating environmental forces into tangible, reflective, and symbolic forms.
The design is inspired by the form of the umbigo-de-vênus (Umbilicus rupestris), a Portuguese plant symbolically connected to the mythology of Venus: fertility, nourishment, protection, and the origins of life. The basins take the shape of receptive, concave vessels. They become fertile centres of gathering and care, places where water is held, shared, and offered back to the garden. Varying in height and placement, the sculptures welcome different animal species while establishing a dynamic spatial relationship with the garden. Reflective surfaces and luminous materials continuously mirror the sky, vegetation, and movement, dissolving the boundaries between the sculpture and the surrounding landscape.
Created for the fifteenth edition of the Sopot by the Book Festival, the project forms part of the Goyki 3 Art Inkubator visual arts programme. In 2026, this programme explores the concepts of national mythologies.
17.08.26 — 24.08.26
photos Jan Rusek / Goyki 3 Art Inkubator