Watermill is a type of mechanism capable of taking advantage of the kinetic energy of water movement to perform different types of functions, such as grinding grains; irrigate or drain large plots of land and even generate electricity. Among its synonyms are the words mill and atafona, the latter being also the name of a region  from the north coast of the state of Rio, which until recently was home to the mouth of the Paraíba do Sul river. 

 

Thanks to human intervention, the meeting between Rio and the Atlantic Ocean no longer happens in Atafona, as around 60% of its waters are dammed to supply cities in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, a fact that combined with the greater The water crisis faced by the Paraíba Basin, between 2014 and 2019, drastically reduced the level of the river in the region, moving the mouth to Gargaú beach, in the city of São Francisco de Itabapoana.

 

Another striking feature of Atafona is the effects that the process of coastal erosion has been having on the region. Hundreds of houses have been covered by the sea since the 1950s, turning the beach into a kind of partially submerged archaeological site. The action of the sea on the coast builds a hybrid landscape full of ruins, which highlights a violent relationship between nature and architecture, and continues to undergo rapid transformation.

 

The work began in 2019, during a period of artistic residency at CasaDuna, an independent art space located in Atafona. All images were produced from analog cameras, using slide films (chrome) that had expired. The process for developing the films used is known as E-6, and is carried out in a non-automated way, using chemicals that are increasingly rare on the market. Furthermore, due to low demand, fewer and fewer places offer this service, carried out by hand, which results in high prices and low production. Some of these laboratories warn that they will discontinue it as soon as their chemical stocks run out. Another procedure used in the development of the project is the use of films expired at different times, bringing another layer of unpredictability to the result.