Actualités
Exposition collective
Christine Laquet, Arendse Krabbe, Gedske Ramløv, Karen Land Hansen, Mariana Gomes Gonçalves, Nina Wengel, and Studio ThinkingHand.
NAC, Nordic Contemporary Art Center, Xiamen, China
06.07.24 — 07.10.24
Sensing the Sea is a group exhibition using notions of the sea as a thematic starting point for new artistic productions and exchanges between Denmark and China. Opening on July 6, 2024 at The Nordic Contemporary Art Center (NAC) in Xiamen, China, the exhibition includes artworks by Arendse Krabbe, Christine Laquet , Gedske Ramløv, Karen Land Hansen, Mariana Gomes Gonçalves, Nina Wengel, and Studio ThinkingHand.
It is organized by Copenhagen-based curators Cila Brosius, who has been specializing in Chinese contemporary art for the past ten years, and Tijana Miskovic, who focuses on transcultural art practices. Sensing the Sea, previously shown at SAK Kunstbygning in Svendborg in an altered form, has adjusted and transformed to a Chinese context in the port city of Xiamen, opening for new dialogues across cultures and geographical areas. In our increasingly polarized world, it seems pertinent to focus on interconnectivity, which is what the fluidity of the water allows us to embrace. Sensing the Sea is an exhibition that not only crosses geographical borders, but also invites us to think beyond the ideological, bodily and disciplinary boundaries.
The exhibition explores a variety of ocean-related topics through different artistic media and conceptual approaches. Krabbe and Gomes Gonçalves’ collaborative video- and sound installation Sympathetic Resonance (2024) explores the notion of resonances by immersing visitors in sound and moving images recorded along the seashores of Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Xiamen, while also inviting audiences to take part in instruction-based activities. Wengel’s large-scale, abstract paintings embrace both the comfort and threat the sea embodies, while also reflecting on the overwhelming notion of human-induced marine contamination. Ramløv’s hyper-detailed drawings and sound installation create parallels between the human lungs, the ebb and flow of marine tides, and the role of the moon in causing this breath-like phenomenon. Laquet, Land Hansen and Studio ThinkingHand collaborate closely with scientists, approaching the sea as an eco-biological realm: Laquet imagines a nonhuman post-petrochemical world by using materials such as white Dehua porcelain to address coral bleaching, and cyanobacteria to create pigments for drawings. Land Hansen’s floating sculpture exposes what is normally invisible to the human eye by visualizing the seabed, based on data obtained through an ongoing collaboration between the artist and a team of scientists from GEUS (The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland). Meanwhile, StudioThinkingHand’s sculptural work DEEP TIME (2023) examines ancient history by incorporating marine sediment up to 12,000 years old into ice-core-shaped glass columns, whereas INTERTIDAL SYNTHESIS (2024) examines the in-between-zones of machines and organisms by filming soft robotic agents interacting with different intertidal environments.
The exhibition is kindly supported by The Nordic Contemporary Art Center (NAC), S.C. Van Fonden, The Royal Danish Embassy in Denmark, Slots og Kulturstyrelsen, Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond, and The Danish Arts Foundation. Special thanks to Pays de La Loire Region, Loire-Atlantique Department, Roscoff Marine Station (CNRS & Sorbonne University), ADAGP, PMH Systems, GEUS, Danish Art Workshops, Luzerne Factory and CiYu Cultural Creative Co. Ltd, Fujian Dehua.
L’exposition explore une variété de sujets liés à l’océan à travers différents médias artistiques et approches conceptuelles. Dans notre monde de plus en plus polarisé, il semble pertinent de se concentrer sur l’interconnectivité, ce que la fluidité de l’eau nous permet d’embrasser. Sensing the Sea ne traverse pas seulement les frontières géographiques, mais nous invite également à penser au-delà des disciplines, des frontières idéologiques et corporelles.
Christine Laquet présente un ensemble d’œuvres sur le microcosme marin qui telles des pollinisations croisées, prônent la symbiose à la fois comme clé de survie (une nécessité biologique) et comme approche philosophique (à même de contribuer au changement d’une vision anthropocentrique du monde). Pour mieux entrevoir le royaume éco-biologique qu’est l’océan, l’artiste collabore étroitement avec des scientifiques de la Station de Biologie Marine de Roscoff. Elle filme autant les gestes des chercheurs lors de prélèvements d’organismes en mer (Neomysis), qu’elle utilise ses propres outils d’observation en inversant les rôles mêlant science et art. Dans Drawing With The Tide, Fabrice Not –dont les recherches portent sur l’écologie et l’évolution du plancton et de la photosymbiose- la filme en train de dessiner sur l’estran, tandis que la marée monte. Pendant plusieurs mois, Laquet a cultivé des cyanobactéries provenant de cinq mers différentes. Ces organismes mono-cellulaires ont non-seulement permit l’apparition du vivant il y a 2,5 milliards d’années, mais ils produisent encore aujourd’hui 20% de l’oxygène terrestre. L’artiste utilise ces pigments « vivants », capables de diffracter la lumière pour produire de l’énergie, dans une série de dessins (Little Angry Dragons). En Chine, Laquet crée Don’t You Sea Changes?, un paysage sous-marin modelé avec de la porcelaine blanche de Dehua (le Blanc de Chine): une installation qui souligne la beauté et la fragilité de l’écosytème corallien dont le blanchiment est le témoin d’une mort qu’il s’agit de refréner.