Seminar Week Autumn Semester 2023

Abstract

Water is the wealth of Banyalbufar. It is the element that turns the steep slopes of the municipality into a productive garden. A centuries-old network of channels and reservoirs distributes the water that accumulates in underground aquifers inside the mountains onto the terraced fields. Vine, tomatoes, lemon, and olive trees grow here, crops that nourish the Mediterranean way of life.

Objective

The original agrarian society of Mallorca, however, has long vanished and new actors have entered the scene: Witty goats are sneaking onto the cultivated terraces to snack on the crops and pine trees are stretching their roots causing dry-stone-walls to collapse. Ever more often unpredictable forces - wildfires and tornadoes - are fighting over the sovereignty of the territory. During the seminar week, we will follow the water on the slopes of Banyalbufar, from the mountain top to the Balearic sea, and all the traces it has left in between. We will learn from the irrigation system and celebrate water as the source of life, invited and accompanied and guided by local geologists, historians, and architects. We will hike to the local wells, survey the state of the water reservoirs, maintain dry-stone walls, celebrate the fruits of the irrigated fields and listen to the elderly of the village on how the water is governed and distributed. Throughout the week we will hike, swim, observe, listen, taste and feast, building a collective understanding of the place with the aim to uncover potentials of this landscape.

Resources