The project “Aral Revival” is an art project implemented in a diptych dedicated to the recognition and protection of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. In 1918, the desiccation of the Aral Sea was planned by the Bolshevik authorities to initiate an intensive program of growing cotton in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers flowing into the sea are diverted from it, as a result of which, in less than a century, almost 80% of the sea dried up, provoking the subsequent disappearance of 28 endemic species from the Aral Sea. Today Kazakhstan wants to implement an ecological project to fill the dried-up sea.

The first part of the project Aral Revival was introduced in 2013 in the city of Aralsk, a former coastal city and currently isolated in the middle of the Kazakh steppes. The city witnessed how its economy and demography collapsed when the sea disappeared. The objectives were to meet the residents who stayed in place and collect their information, as well as ask questions/hold a conversation about the hypothetical rise of the water level by implementing two stages in one of Aralsk’s numerous burial grounds.

Stage (1) The revival of the Aral Sea takes place on the deck of one of the many rusty sunken ships that dotted the steppes instead of the former sea. Sarah Trouche, naked and fully painted in blue, carries two flags in each hand. These flags, the colors of which are similar to the colors of the Kazakhstan flag (blue and yellow), are addressed in case of communication of the flags of the international navy used for data exchange using a semaphore.

They are usually used to control boats and warn them of the danger in the sea. Standing on the frame of an abandoned boat in the middle of the steppe, she tries to simulate meaningful signs for many minutes: it is difficult to approach. Standing on the crash site, this action foreshadows the near future. It fights against the wind of the steppes to point out to future boats the dangers associated with the presence of this destructive cemetery, the witness of the catastrophe. The artist wanted to carry out this action in order to warn the public about the critical situation of people living in this area since the disappearance of the sea.

Water was a life-saving circle for the region thanks to fishing. In an interview with residents of the city of Aralsk, the artist meets the old woman, the fisherman’s wife, a witness of the disaster and tells her that the disappeared sea opened the withered corpses of millions of fish.

Sarah Trouche makes a new attempt, reflecting these indications – Aralsk testimony (2). During this action, she assimilated with a Kazakh woman who makes a wonderful fishing trip in the middle of the desert. Dried fish, painted in blue, randomly scattered on the dusty ground and the artist one by one collects it in a fisherman’s network. In the background, the voice of an old woman sounds, which tells of her memories of a rich life that has now ended.

Performance in Almaty