Dialogues of the flooded
Photo by Kairos fotostudioMediation in times of environmental grief
L'Horta Sud is a highly fragmented territory: it is crossed by roads, railway lines, industrial estates and the new Turia riverbed. A network of infrastructures which, together with the expanding port, has reduced agricultural land to an almost anecdotal presence in recent decades, turning this area into a «sacrifice zone» designed to guarantee the development of the capital, Valencia. From the 1960s to the present day, agricultural land, a finite asset, a source of food and a generator of multiple ecological benefits, has dramatically receded in the face of a 450% increase in urbanised area. Impermeabilisation of fertile land and building in flood-prone areas have exacerbated the impacts of the October 2024 DANA, significantly intensifying its consequences.
At the kick-off session of the project Metabolic Connections, We met in Castellar l'Oliveral, one of the villages affected by the ravine, which still conserves areas of productive orchards and is located in the natural park of l'Albufera, on 3 October 2025. Led by Giulia Perli, from the artistic collective ideadestroyingwalls, we built an emotional map of l'Horta and l'Albufera from items of clothing provided by the participants, full of memories and personal ties with the territory. Between threads and needles, we wove conversations and shared experiences one year after the DANA, creating a space of closeness and care in which to welcome the mourning and accompany each other in the process of recovery. It was not only about processing the traumatic event of the flood, with its enormous destructive load, but also about acknowledging fatigue The result of having to deal with the multiple vulnerabilities that this catastrophe has revealed. To address, in a sustained manner, the human, environmental and political emergencies of recent months and to articulate a collective response to the numerous aggressions, such as the reform of the Law for the Protection of l'Horta, which continue to threaten the integrity of the territory. Hence the need to stand together, to support each other in a context of growing fragility, exacerbated by the climate crisis.
In the second part of the meeting, we stopped to reflect on the effects of the DANA on l'Albufera. This wetland, along with the surrounding rice fields, has been affected by the wave of waste washed away by the flood: cars, medicines, packaging of all kinds and microplastics that have entered the food chain of this delicate ecosystem. We talked to Eva Tudela (Acció Ecologista Agró) and Javier Jiménez Romo (biologist) about the clean-up work and the challenges involved in restoring this environment of great ecological value, which is home to a high level of biodiversity and where one of the most emblematic foods of Valencian agriculture is produced: rice. We ask ourselves: In what way can we arouse a feeling of solidarity, care and mobilisation similar to that generated in the first weeks after the DANA, but also extended towards the more than human world? How to think and feel the territory not as a resource, but as a common good of which we are a part? How to put in value the agricultural and natural space as that which nourishes us and, at the same time, protects us against present and future extreme weather events?
We concluded the day with the first stage of the Menjador Ambulant de l'Horta, tasting two traditional Valencian recipes prepared by Al Paladar, an organic catering project that works with local and seasonal ingredients. This moment of conviviality was an invitation to connect with pleasure and the senses with the metabolisms of the territory, the flows of matter and energy that run through us and the networks of relationships that sustain and nourish us.
