Luzinterruptus: drinking water through the streets

The Spanish collective's latest intervention draws attention to the dry, dismantled and broken public water fountains in the city.

The Luzinterruptus collective recently completed an ephemeral installation in Madrid, where, for 6 hours, 4 public fountains were invaded by light and glass containers, to a stunning, if nostalgic effect. In Madrid, in less than 30 years, more than 50% of the public fountains in service have been lost, which now are seen to be dismantled, broken, without a tap to drink from or simply dry.

"In Madrid, to find a fountain, you have to walk more than 5 kms," state Luzinterruptus. "It makes us very angry that in order to drink in a public place we have to buy a bottle of water in a kiosk or go into a bar, not to mention the fun the children playing in the parks and squares are being deprived of."

"To criticize the indifference of the administration in regards to a necessary public service, even more so in a city as warm as Madrid, we carried out an action called Drinking water running through the streets."

"We have spent 4 months collecting the glass containers of the multiple vitamin supplement Infatrini, prescribed for little Alicia, who is now 1 year old, and whose father Fernando has been saving them for us with all the patience in the world. In total they have donated more than 200 vials to us that we have thoroughly cleaned and used to create our individual and luminous streams of water."

"On a cold night at the end of January, we went out into the street and took control of 4 unused public fountains in the city center, bringing them back to life for a few hours. We wanted to say that water is necessary for life and that the fountains that are used for drinking and refreshing ourselves seem much more necessary and beautiful to us than those which are merely ornamental, which the citizens cannot normally get close if not for some football event of "national interest"."