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TBA21–Academy

About the Academy

"When above…”, Territorial Agency, Ocean Space, Venice, 2020. Courtesy of TBA21–Academy. Photo: Marco Cappelletti.

Taloi Havini, Answer to the Call, 2021. Exhibition view The Soul Expanding Ocean #1: Taloi Havini, Ocean Space, Venice. Photo: Enrico Fiorese.

Isabel Lewis, O.C.E.A.N.I.C.A. (Occasions Creating Ecologically Attuned Narratives in Collective Action), 2021. Exhibition-performance “The Soul Expanding Ocean #2: Isabel Lewis”, Ocean Space, Venice.

‘Oceans Calling’ by Laura Anderson Barbata, Performance at UN Ocean Conference, New York, 2017. Photo: Frank Veronsky.

SUPERFLEX: Deep Sea Minding, Hunga Tonga, 2019. Photo: Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza.

TBA21–Academy is TBA21's research arm fostering a deeper relationship with the Ocean and other bodies of water through the lens of art to inspire care and action. Established in 2011, the Academy has since worked as an incubator for collaborative inquiry, artistic production, and environmental advocacy, catalyzing new forms of knowledge emerging from the exchanges between art, science, policy, and conservation.

In 2019, TBA21–Academy opened Ocean Space in Venice, a planetary center that hosts exhibitions, research, and public activities that accelerate critical ocean literacy through the arts. Building on TBA21–Academy’s expansive work, this embassy for the Ocean fosters engagement and collective action on the most pressing issues facing the Ocean today.

Its digital counterpart, Ocean-Archive.org, is a user-based platform in the making, conceived as a framework for collaborative research that brings together the multitude of voices and stories around the Ocean and connects those striving to nurture and protect it. Designed as a storytelling and pedagogical tool, the Archive translates current knowledge about the Ocean into a shared language that enables us to make better decisions for urgently needed policies.

CURRENT & UPCOMING PROGRAM

Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania
March 23–October 13, 2024
Ocean Space, Venice
More information can be found HERE.

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