Prospecting Ocean by Armin Linke
Dal 23/05/2018 ore 10.00 al 30/06/2018 ore 20.00
Istituto di scienze marine (Ismar-Cnr)
Riva dei Sette Martiri, 1364 30122 Venezia, Italy
This May, coinciding with the launch of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
TBA21–Academy in collaboration with Ismar-Cnr presents an investigative exhibition by the filmmaker and photographer Armin Linke exploring contemporary challenges facing our oceans. Drawing upon rare footage of the deep-sea and interviews with leading scientists, policymakers, and legal experts, the exhibition scrutinizes the aesthetics of technoscientific apparatuses and grapples with the tension between ecological protection of our oceans and political and economic exploitation.
Marking the culmination of a three-year research project with TBA21–Academy, Linke’s Prospecting Ocean presents a rich choreography of multimedia footage and archival materials exhibited in the former headquarters and laboratory spaces of the Institute of Marine Sciences (Ismar-Cnr), including several multi-channel video installations and a new series of photographs.
A montage of rarely seen images of the ocean floor — captured by remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) at a depth of up to 5,000 meters — visually juxtaposes the “natural” seabed with the machinery used to extract resources such as deep-sea minerals. Legally defined as common heritage of humankind, these so-called resources have formed over millions of years; deep-sea vents are considered the location of the origin of life. From highly detached images of machinery and clinical incisions in the seabed to assemblies at the UN and infrastructural apparatuses, Linke exposes submarine sites that are commonly invisible and accesses the meetings of decision makers that are usually closed off to the public. Scrutinizing the institutions administrating the seabed, Linke deconstructs the idea of a marine-based blue economy and policy commonly supported by governments.
At Ismar-Cnr, the footage filmed by Linke and his team is presented alongside behind-the-scenes interviews of leading biologists, geologists, and policymakers, as well as footage of activist movements in Papua New Guinea, inviting the viewer to consider the implications of deep-sea mining and other excavations on both the environment and communities. Linke lays bare an intricate network of dynamics, dissecting how information is negotiated between scientific, legal, and economic entities and institutions, on both local and international levels.
Prospecting Ocean also features a selection of primary documents and books from the Ismar-Cnr historical library selected by the institute’s scientists and critical texts analyzing the legal, political, and economic infrastructures presiding over the allocation of ocean resources. Taken together, the project scrutinizes the administration of the oceans and exposes the simultaneous fascination with and alienation from technologies that map, visualize, and exploit resources in the sea.
Prospecting Ocean will be activated during its inaugural weekend, and throughout its run, with a series of programs organized by Territorial Agency, an independent organization founded by John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog that innovatively promotes and works for sustainable territorial transformations. These activations will take the form of lectures, conversations, and object-making drawn from data sourced from CNR-ISMAR’s research archive.
About Armin Linke
Armin Linke is a photographer and filmmaker whose body of work analyzes the formation of our natural, technological, and urban environment. Throughout his twenty-year career, Linke's work has investigated how mankind uses technology and knowledge to transform and develop the Earth's surface. His films and photographs are observations of the changes humans have made to the land, oceans, and biosphere. Born in 1966 and based in Berlin, Linke has served as a Research Affiliate at MIT Visual Arts Program Cambridge, guest professor at the IUAV Arts and Design University in Venice, and professor for photography at the University for Arts and Design Karlsruhe.
Prospecting Ocean emerges from Linke’s long-term Anthropocene research and his participation in three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean with TBA21–Academy’s exploratory program The Current. It was first presented in an early iteration as an official project of the Year of Science 2016*17—Seas and Oceans, a program of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Organizzato da:
Cnr- Istituto di scienze marine
in collaborazione con TBA21-Academy, GEOMAR
Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Referente organizzativo:
Angela Pomaro
Cnr- Istituto di scienze marine
Arsenale, Tesa 104 Castello 2737/F 30122 Venezia
angela.pomaro@ve.ismar.cnr.it
Modalità di accesso: ingresso libero
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