UC San Diego

Bangalore’s wetlands are polluted with sewage and waste to such an extent that they produce spectacular foams and fires. 'The Lake and The Lake' is a film that responds to a media-driven crisis around these phenomena by offering a representation of one particular lake, Bellandur, as a 'toxic commons'. The lake is toxic in both senses of the word: poisonous to the living beings that inhabit it and high-risk in economic terms. Nevertheless, it remains a space of commoning for various people whose labour sustains the city’s development. Unlike environmentalisms that seek to eliminate signs of toxicity, 'The Lake and The Lake' invites us to consider how spaces of toxicity are also spaces of life and work. This essay aims to articulate the aesthetic formations and entanglements from which the film emerges.