The research explores the water flow of the Moscow Canal as the matter that bears witness to the violence experienced by human and nonhuman actors during the waterway’s construction between 1932 and 1937. By attending to the Canal’s flow, it argues that water can operate as an alternative archive, pushing the boundaries of what is considered unarchivable and contributing to more conventional forms of documentation. The project has two chapters. The first chapter works with the operative concept of material witness by Susan Schuppli and investigates the water flow through three functions it performs: registration, disclosure, and preservation of the underwater residues. The second chapter examines the Canal as part of hydropower infrastructure and analyzes its archival capacities, drawing from the field of infrastructure studies.

PROJECTS