„I am Wistula."

Art exhibition

“I Am Wistula” is an immersive public space art exhibition that celebrates the Vistula River’s landscape in Poland. It reveals the river’s strength, its vital role in community life, and the deep scars left by human pollution.
The exhibit honors the beauty, power and sacredness of Wisła, creating a mirror image to showing the pollution created by humans she is holding and advocating for the Vistula’s right to remain clean and flow freely. It gives the river a voice—an opportunity to be seen, heard, and restored.
It confronts a modern paradox: people are drawn to the river for peace and beauty, yet tolerate its pollution. We dream of swimming in clean water, but allow the dream to drift further away.

We must protect our rivers to ensure a healthy, joyful human society. Clean, swimmable, fishable rivers are not a fantasy—they are our right. This installation invites us to face the truth, and to choose hope.

,,I AM WISTULA” speaks on behalf of a force and intelligence that sustains all life—and yet has no seat at the table: WATER.

In today’s anthropocentric world, only humans speak—about water, about other form of life and about their value. I AM WISTULA is remain committed to carrying water’s voice—so that her eternal essence and deep intelligence may once again be recognized, revered, and held sacred by humanity.

Join us by the Wistula
Warsaw, General Patton Boulevard (by the pedestrian and bicycle footbridge)
June 17 – October 30, 2025

Pause for a moment…
Hear the river…
Become its ally…

The Wistula has a voice. It’s time to listen…

ABOUT THE CURATORS AND PRODUCERS

Curator: Tanja Andrejasic Wechsler, uses water drops to represent the pristine essence of water and the human soul — something we humans can return to. Through these drops, she calls on humanity to honor water’s right to remain clean and flow according to its purpose, supporting life as it was meant to.
The I AM WATER sculpture and the line of water-drop- shaped glass bottles designed by Ms. Wechsler are part of a campaign to protect and restore clean water.
Ms. Wechsler created I AM WATER in her effort to stop water pollution and join the call for hope and respect and rights of for Life to flourish. Her work seeks to reawaken humanity’s reverence for water and respect for all life, aiming to bridge the gap in today’s water paradigm that contributes to harmful practices and environmental degradation.

Producer: Wiktor Strumiłło – river lover, photographer, cinematographer, and licensed drone operator. An experienced inland and sea sailor, he is co-builder and owner of the 16th-century barge replica Oskar Kolberg.

Wiktor is the drone cinematographer for Warner Bros Discovery and worked on the acclaimed 2023 documentary Till the Last Drop by Ewa Ewart, which won numerous international awards, including the Golden Nymph in Monte Carlo and Best Documentary at New York’s Water World Film Festival.
He also created and filmed The Lost Urzecze (2020), co-wrote and shot Uncovering the History of Warsaw’s Praga District (2014), and filmed R.U.T.A.’s music video Song of Rebellion (2012).
In 2024, he led the “Connecting Poland” Flis, navigating Oskar Kolberg from the Dunajec River to the Baltic Sea.

Artist: Luciana Abait. Luciana Abait was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is currently based in Los Angeles. Her multimedia works deal with climate change and environmental fragility, and their impacts on immigrants. Her work has been exhibited globally in museums, galleries, and international art fairs, including LACMA, Laguna Art Museum and ARCO. She has completed prominent public art commissions and has been featured in major publications. Abait is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 2024 L.L. Stewart Fellowship by the Oregon State University.

PROTE, a leader in environmental restoration for nearly 30 years, is dedicated to improving soil and water quality through innovative, nature-based solutions.

As part of our commitment to ecological balance, PROTE proudly implements the SYMBIO Biomonitoring System, pioneered by Huber Bialous, utilizing oysters and mussels to safeguard drinking water quality. Our installations, from Warsaw’s “Gruba Kaśka” intake down the Vistula to Płock, serve as natural sentinels, detecting pollutants and ensuring safe water for millions.
This project exemplifies our mission to harmonize technological progress with environmental stewardship, reinforcing our role in restoring and protecting vital water ecosystems.

WaterSense – Smart Technology for a Living River is an innovative water monitoring system developed in Poland as part of a national strategy for sustainable water management. Using real-time sensors and intelligent data processing, it tracks a river’s flow, quality, and ecological health—enabling rapid responses to pollution, drought, and other environmental threats.
In the I AM WISTULA exhibit, WaterSense technology merges with art and public engagement. Underwater imaging and digital projections transform raw data into a living, sensory experience—inviting visitors to witness the river’s condition not through statistics, but through the language of light, movement, and rhythm.
This fusion of science and art fosters a deeper, more emotional relationship with water—one rooted in awareness, empathy, and respect. WaterSense becomes more than a monitoring tool; it becomes a vessel through which the river speaks. It reminds us that water is not merely a resource to be managed, but a living presence with the right to thrive.

Goal of the exhibition

This exhibit’s goal is to inspire connection and create a lasting impact on the public’s relationship with water, sparking care, public awarness and spart further action to protect Wistula.
At its core, this is about the restoration of the river, the community, and public awareness of the importance of water. This could be one of the first major riverbank water art installations in action—an initiative that could continue across Poland, calling for the rights of rivers to remain clean and contributing to the broader European efforts to recognize rivers’ rights: to be free of pollution, to support biodiversity, to restore themselves and to be fed by sustainable aquifers.