VODA MÁ
reviving the Mother River
through participatory
art, science and policy
through participatory
art, science and policy
the project
Voda Má is an interdisciplinary participatory project at the intersection of art, science, civil society, and water economics.
The project explores the transition from chaotic and unintentional water consumption to thoughtful interaction with Water as a living resource and legacy. Scientific concepts are not only discussed but lived through artistic practice to create emotional connection and memory.
The project explores the transition from chaotic and unintentional water consumption to thoughtful interaction with Water as a living resource and legacy. Scientific concepts are not only discussed but lived through artistic practice to create emotional connection and memory.
the metaphor
The river is a woman with long, flowing hair. Her hair represents the tributaries, channels, streams, pipes, veins, and arteries of the aquatic system. We are the cells within this living organism: water passes through us and returns to the ecosystem. The metaphor also connects local folklore with contemporary artistic expression across the project geography, helping people form a relationship with the River.
The name Voda Má emerges from the Czech „voda má“ – “water has” or “my water”, and a sound that evokes a primal “water mother” association in Indo-European roots. This ambiguity carries the conceptual core of the project: water as origin, bearer, and living force. The phrase appears in the song “Modlitba za vodu” (“Prayer for Water”) by Jan Skácel and the Hradišťan band, which the authors want to position as the headliner for the project. The song evokes image of a woman walking to a river or spring to fetch water – a quiet archetypal image from collective memory. With a vessel in her hands, she embodies care, continuity, and everyday ritual; and at the same time - the river herself. Reimagined today, this figure steps from the riverbank into the city – into treatment plants, public debates, and artistic spaces – reminding us that modern water systems still depend on the same gestures of care and responsibility.
The name Voda Má emerges from the Czech „voda má“ – “water has” or “my water”, and a sound that evokes a primal “water mother” association in Indo-European roots. This ambiguity carries the conceptual core of the project: water as origin, bearer, and living force. The phrase appears in the song “Modlitba za vodu” (“Prayer for Water”) by Jan Skácel and the Hradišťan band, which the authors want to position as the headliner for the project. The song evokes image of a woman walking to a river or spring to fetch water – a quiet archetypal image from collective memory. With a vessel in her hands, she embodies care, continuity, and everyday ritual; and at the same time - the river herself. Reimagined today, this figure steps from the riverbank into the city – into treatment plants, public debates, and artistic spaces – reminding us that modern water systems still depend on the same gestures of care and responsibility.
the workflow
The Voda Má project will unfold as a series of public gatherings, creative workshops, and conversations along the river landscape. The goal is simple: to help people see water not as a service that comes from the tap, but as a living presence that connects ecosystems, cities, and everyday life.
The central metaphor guides the project’s activities: each workshop and event invites people to reconnect with the embodied river that quietly flows through their lives.
Public Workshops and Dialogues
The core of the project will be a series of participatory workshops held in different locations along the river network. These events are not traditional lectures. Instead, they combine conversation, creativity, and practical reflection. Participants may include residents, artists, students, water professionals, local authorities, and businesses connected to water management. Bringing these groups together in the same space allows everyday experiences, technical knowledge, and cultural imagination to meet. Each workshop will explore water from a different perspective. One session may invite participants to draw or paint their own image of the river, expressing how they experience water in their daily lives. Another may explore “the journey of water”, tracing how it travels from mountain sources to cities, households, treatment plants, and eventually back to nature. Other sessions will focus on new ideas for caring for water, encouraging dialogue between citizens and decision-makers.
Art, Story, Infrastructure and Insight
Art plays an important role in the project. Music, drawing, storytelling, and movement will be used to make complex water topics accessible and memorable. Through these creative methods, participants can imagine the river as a shared personality – something that flows through communities and generations.
At the same time, the workshops will highlight the real infrastructure and decisions that shape our relationship with water. Discussions with utility providers, researchers, and policymakers will help participants understand how water systems work and where collective action is possible.
Sharing Knowledge
The ideas, artworks, and insights generated during the workshops will be collected and shared through an online River Library – a digital space where art, knowledge, and stories about the river can continue to flow and inspire others.
In this way, the project connects imagination with practical awareness, helping people rediscover water not only as a resource, but as a living thread that ties communities together.
The central metaphor guides the project’s activities: each workshop and event invites people to reconnect with the embodied river that quietly flows through their lives.
Public Workshops and Dialogues
The core of the project will be a series of participatory workshops held in different locations along the river network. These events are not traditional lectures. Instead, they combine conversation, creativity, and practical reflection. Participants may include residents, artists, students, water professionals, local authorities, and businesses connected to water management. Bringing these groups together in the same space allows everyday experiences, technical knowledge, and cultural imagination to meet. Each workshop will explore water from a different perspective. One session may invite participants to draw or paint their own image of the river, expressing how they experience water in their daily lives. Another may explore “the journey of water”, tracing how it travels from mountain sources to cities, households, treatment plants, and eventually back to nature. Other sessions will focus on new ideas for caring for water, encouraging dialogue between citizens and decision-makers.
Art, Story, Infrastructure and Insight
Art plays an important role in the project. Music, drawing, storytelling, and movement will be used to make complex water topics accessible and memorable. Through these creative methods, participants can imagine the river as a shared personality – something that flows through communities and generations.
At the same time, the workshops will highlight the real infrastructure and decisions that shape our relationship with water. Discussions with utility providers, researchers, and policymakers will help participants understand how water systems work and where collective action is possible.
Sharing Knowledge
The ideas, artworks, and insights generated during the workshops will be collected and shared through an online River Library – a digital space where art, knowledge, and stories about the river can continue to flow and inspire others.
In this way, the project connects imagination with practical awareness, helping people rediscover water not only as a resource, but as a living thread that ties communities together.
what we have done so far
grant applications, concept work, artistic collaborations...
We have created a prototype of the River Woman - a character image for our initiative and the personification of water.
We have spent hours discussing the energy of wild, mysterious, feminine water archetype. The rivers, tributaries, meanders, the flowing hair, the ancient and youthfully alive force that refuses to be enclosed into pipes and artificial channels that spreads out through our body, nourishes us, and that is also our essence and essence of life... And we have only touched the surface and will continue exploring the depth of water...
We submitted a proposal to a grant call "PartArt4OW" which is fostering participatory artistic and creative initiatives to tackle ocean and water basin challenges. After getting a rejection and learning from feedback, we have found 3 more grand funds and are submitting applications during the year 2026
We dedicated our pilot to the river Elbe (Czech "Labe"), a transboundary waterway connecting the Czech Republic and Germany and flowing into the North Sea. The Elbe is viewed not simply as a river, but as a cultural axis connecting the Slavic and Germanic worlds, ecological systems, water management economies, and everyday life.We didn't win that grant but we're implementing feedback and planning to apply for other participatory grants very soon.
We have noticed synchronicities
between our body and bodies of Water
We have created a water-cycle poster for a competition in Kazakhstan
The poster was done in consultation between EU-based and local team and it made it to the final selection and lead to follow-up opportunities with the City of Astana.
We have written poetry and thoughts for Water
Listen or read one of the pieces in Natalia's Journal
how you can participate
- recommend grant sources to us
- call us to speak at an event
- co-create a concept for the next bioregion and river
- create pro bono art with Voda Má theme
- connect us to musicians, painters and other aritsts
- connect us to city authorities and utilities
- post about the concept on your social media
- take pictures, notes and thoughts about water cycle and share them
- go walk by a river and communicate with her
Write to us to learn more and participate!
Alyona Maslova
Project producer, concept co-author
Alena Maslova is an international media producer, ethicist, language philosopher, and active co-author and supporter of the concept of Sustainability and Well-Being Arts. Alena is the founder of Sustainabity Arts think-tank and production company "Dobrosphera", which produces research-based films and cartoons, songs, translations, poems on well-being of humans and nature to provide Social Behavior Change.
Partners and interested viewers of Alena’s projects include UNDP, OSCE, OSUN (Open Society University Network), and many others.
Partners and interested viewers of Alena’s projects include UNDP, OSCE, OSUN (Open Society University Network), and many others.
Natalia Sonina
Creative facilitator, concept co-author
Natalia Sonina is a sustainability consultant and facilitator of mindfulness and regenerative practices. Natalia works with development projects in a Czech consulting firm Aspiro, and also has a private practice of coaching and facilitation. She is experienced in project management, public speaking and training.
Natalia has collaborated with development institutions such as the World Bank, UNDP, EBRD and with new paradigm sustainability and regenerative projects such as Dobrosphera, Fito network, etc.
Natalia has collaborated with development institutions such as the World Bank, UNDP, EBRD and with new paradigm sustainability and regenerative projects such as Dobrosphera, Fito network, etc.
BONUS: PLAYLIST
The project team has created a playlist on Spotify with Czech, German and international water-themed music. 12 powerful, deep, and sometimes funny water songs.
Image credits: @silvia_o_arte; on Unsplash: Peter Robbins; Kazuend; Jon Flobrant; Glauber Sampaio; Mario Alvarez; Beth Macdonald; Dmitry Stepanov; Seibert; Sienna; Egor Artamonov; Andrea Puglisi; Alfonso Betancourt