Sara Sachs/AMBRA: Aqua Drama

Through performative approaches, video works, and sculptures, Sara Sachs/AMBRA explores the symbolic and physical characteristics of water. Aqua Drama is an immersive installation and performance that delves into the deepest crises of our time while celebrating the magical properties of imagination.

Visual artist Sara Sachs’ artistic universe forms the framework for the performance Aqua Drama, where theater, video, and sculptures combine to create a dystopian sci-fi scenario where water is scarce, and imagination is the last refuge. At the core of the installation, a video work filmed in the Los Angeles desert portrays a desiccated world where bizarre characters deliver hallucinatory and imaginative accounts of water and the longing for a reality where water flows freely.

In the video, a dry parallel world meets our reality through a mermaid—a clichéd aquatic being shaped by both Hollywood and H.C. Andersen’s fairy tales. Through a camp aesthetic, the mermaid and Copenhagen icon represent a possible resolution through kitsch, desire, and unavoidable future catastrophes, unfolding to the backdrop of pop music.

Inspired by the grand theatrical traditions of the Baroque, where large water stages were used to stage naval battles glorifying the economic wealth of rulers, Aqua Drama is an opera-in-progress about water as a fluid symbol of power and the world left behind when all resources have been consumed.