Between January 18 and 19 2021 I collected samples of snow and ice from 6 spots in Madrid I found of interest, situated as close as possible to the references I had of the old network of water journeys. After nearly 10 days exposed to the weather, cleaning tasks, and traffic, the remaining snow had become a breeding ground for multiple substances. Cigarettes, salt, pollution from car exhausts, bits of concrete and mortar, rests of food, dog pee, branches and leaves, a few dozens of lost gloves... in a liquefying emulsion with the once white snow, filtering through the ground, and washing away into the sewer system.

I label the samples and keep them in my freezer. I can perfectly recognize each one, singular as they are. I play to order them by color (from clearer to darker), or for the amount of alien substances I can perceive at plain sight. I try to tell in which samples there are traces of human activity, industrial activity, cars, animals, and plants. I make tests with pH strips. I let part of them evaporate to see if they crystalize. I put another part into agar-agar, and let bacteria grow. I get a friend of mine (scientist) to take some microscopic pictures of the samples.

In human breast milk there are more toxins than would be allowed in any other animal origin milk processed for human consumption12. The micro world reveals many stories about the city's toxic flows. Will the substances in the snow infiltrate my woman's body and feed the next generation? What other kinds of information will it/I absorb too? How do we negotiate each other's future bodies?

Filomena