Chus Martínez, Convening #1
September 28–29, 2018
Venice
Italy
TBA21–Academy presents two-days of performances and lectures curated by Chus Martínez, Expedition Leader of the second cycle of The Current; the first of three annual Convenings exploring the theme Spheric Ocean.
Diva Amon, Julieta Aranda, Cecilia Bengolea, Claudia Comte, Francesca von Habsburg, Marah Hardt, Donna Kukama, Chus Martínez, Ingo Niermann, Markus Reymann, Mathilde Rosier, Georgia Sagri, Christina Tony
Free admission with online registration
Think about the Ocean as you think about a relationship. We know that humans are bad at being faithful, infidelity has a tenacity that faithfulness can only envy. If you ask about Nature or the Ocean, everyone would be ready to declare their love, or our dependency, and yet we cheat on the seas, on water, on resources, on the images, on life. Ocean Adultery has many forms, and historically it has been—as Anthony Burgess describes it—“the most creative of sins.” We deplore the many times and many ways we were unfaithful to the Ocean, and yet prohibition only fuels the eagerness with which we consume our forbidden apples—or better said, our forbidden waters, fish, corals, sea beds, and human lives… We need to face this: if we keep failing to meet our own standards, the solution is simply to try harder. This exercise cannot happen without thinking through a question: who is the injured party? One would say the Ocean, but would that be to demonize our actions without pausing to explore our motives? Without learning how to weather its occurrence?
Inspired by the history of fear, power abuse and its relation to the elements rather than only to the humans, and drawing on the thinking of many poets, writers, and philosophers about the importance of the complaint to raise awareness, the first day of our convening will be structured as a lament: a collective performance where activists and artists give body, form, and voice to what we lament. Lamenting the Ocean, but also current forms of inequality, considering how gender and racial inequality are in complete entanglement here.
On the second day, the lamenting voice will raise an Awe. Admiration, reverence, a series of acts, performances, and lectures on the issues we admire, on all in life that bring us to this strange space of generosity, since to admire means to go out of oneself.
Chus Martínez
Friday, September 28
Day One: The Night of the Oh!s
7pm
Markus Reymann
Francesca von Habsburg
Welcome
7:20pm
Chus Martínez
The Ohhhs! The Ways to Complain, Part I
A manifesto
8pm
Marah Hardt
Sex and the Seas or How We Are Not Able to Mate With the Sea, a Pity
Lecture
9:30
Georgia Sagri
The Creation of the Wave, Part I
Performance (approx. 30 minutes)
Click here to register by September 28
Saturday, September 29
Day Two: The Day of the Ah!s
11am
Chus Martínez
The Ways to Awe!, Part II
A manifesto
11:30am
Mathilde Rosier
Sensing the Seas
Performance and screening
12pm
Diva Amon
Merging With The Depths!
Lecture
12:30pm
Ingo Niermann, Chus Martínez, Julieta Aranda
Three Proposals of Understanding All We Need to Change in Us to Become the Sea
Lecture
1:30pm
Christina Tony
Everybody Got a Little Voice to Address the Seas
Lecture
2pm
Break
3:30pm
Claudia Comte
The Day that Wood and Matter Wanted to Become Salt Water
Performance with music by Egon Elliut and dance by Cecilia Bengolea
4:30pm
Donna Kukama
The Ways We Sing and Move to Become Ocean, the Ways We Remember to Be Ocean
Performance (approx. 120 minutes)
6:30pm
Interval
7pm
Marah Hardt
Sex and the Seas or How We Are Able to Mate with the Sea, a Luck!
Lecture
8:30pm
Cecilia Bengolea
The Creation of the Wave, Part II
Closing performance
About The Current
TBA21–Academy’s The Current is concerned with the state of the ocean and the discourse around it and seeks to provide a platform for the cultivation of interdisciplinary thought, the exchange of ideas and new knowledge production. Organised in three-year cycles, the programme centres around annual expeditions at sea and land-based Convenings linked to the exploratory theme of each ocean encounter. Each cycle of The Current is led by one or more Expedition Leaders selected by the Academy, who in turn nominate Fellows–artists, curators, scientists, and other cultural actors–to join a collective research project unfolding over the three years. The Spanish curator Chus Martínez and Danish artist collective SUPERFLEX have been appointed by TBA21–Academy as Expedition Leaders of the second three-year cycle of The Current. Their projects will run in parallel from 2018 to 2020.
About TBA21–Academy
TBA21–Academy leads artists, scientists, and thought-leaders on expeditions of collaborative discovery. Founded by Francesca von Habsburg and led by Director Markus Reymann, the Academy is dedicated to fostering a deeper understanding of the ocean through the lens of art and to engendering creative solutions to its most pressing issues. TBA21–Academy commissions interdisciplinary research that catalyses engagement, stimulates new knowledge, and inspires artistic production. Established in 2011, the nonprofit’s programme is informed by a belief in the power of exchange between disciplines and in the ability of the arts as a vessel for communication, change, and action.
Participants of the Summer School #1 at the Chiesa di San Lorenzo from the September 24 to the 27 are: Nora Berman, Anastasia Chaguidouline, Anna Diehl, Michael Etzensperger, Martina Henzi, Christopher Hunter, Nikhil Jain, Danielle Küchler, Till Langschied, Kaspar Ludwig, Simone Steinegger, Jan van Oordt (Art Institute, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel), Raffaela Naldi Rossano, Luca di Bernardo (The Fondazione Morra), Claudia Cisneros, Berenice Olmedo (Fundación Alumnos 47). The Summer School is mentored by Ingo Niermann, Mathilde Rosier and Georgia Sagri, with the special participation of Dayne Buddo and Joan Jonas.
Commissioned and produced by TBA21–Academy with the support of Art Institute, FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel
