Tessa Mars

A call to the ocean

Tessa Mars, "A call to the ocean", 2025. Exhibition view of “otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua” [other mountains, adrift beneath the waves], Ocean Space, Venice. Commissioned by TBA21–Academy. Photo: Jacopo Salvi

Academy Commissions

Commissions & Productions

Tessa Mars

Nadia Huggins

A shipwreck is not a wreck, 2025

Commissioned and produced by TBA21–Academy

In her video installation “A shipwreck is not a wreck” (2025), Huggins examines the potential of the tool improvisation~freestyle in interaction with human perception. If binary and stable frameworks have led to the internalizing of mechanisms of domination—both sensory and collective—then improvisation~freestyle compels us to confront the boundaries of this matrix, inviting us to recognize the need for alternatives. The work guides visitors through the skeletal remains of a shipwreck, now inhabited by both human and non-human entities undergoing a multi-vector process of transformation, ultimately merging into a common geological body and starting the cycle anew.

The shipwreck itself is an enigmatic presence, known only through its physical manifestation in the exhibition space. The viewer bears witness to its catalytic impact on the processes unfolding in the work, where rocks, corals, humans, jellyfish, and mangroves collectively exemplify how the Ocean is both a generative force and a site of existence. Far from conforming to conventional notions of what is «good», their movements embody a spectrum of emotional complexity. By juxtaposing the shipwreck motif with interactions among the characters depicted in the work, the artist challenges the linear and often romanticized narratives with which both science and the humanities have historically approached world-building.

“A shipwreck is not a wreck” employs a dynamic interplay of intensities, velocities, repeated movements, shifts in focus, and spatial, auditory, and temporal disorientation. These formal strategies serve to confront the limits of human sensory capacities while also pointing toward the possibility of expanding them, toward a point where perception itself becomes something other. In this way, improvisation~freestyle is not merely a thematic concern but an intrinsic methodology underpinning the reflective nature of the work. Text by Yina Jiménez Suriel

This work was commissioned and produced on the occasion of the exhibition “otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo del agua” (other mountains, adrift beneath the waves), curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel for Ocean Space, Venice 2025

RELATED PROGRAM

otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua Exhibition at Ocean Space - Venice

Artists

Tessa Mars