Armin Linke

Armin Linke

Photoessay related to the “Prospecting Ocean” project, 2016-2017

Series of 11 lambda prints
Three lambda prints: 150 x 200 x 4 cm (each, 157 x 206.6 x 4 cm (each framed)
Eight lambda prints: 50 x 60 x 4 cm (each), 53 x 63 x 4 cm (each framed)
Commissioned and produced by TBA21–Academy
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection

 
As part of a wealth of material produced over the course of Armin Linke’s three-year-long research project, Prospecting Ocean, this photo-essay demonstrates a single dimension of the artist’s exploration of the various artistic, academic and journalistic usages of film and photographic media in his practice.^[1] The photographs grouped in this series were taken by Linke during a research trip to Papua New Guinea, which in the context of his project, is a case study representative of his larger interrogation of the various forms of legislation, activism, and economy which exist in relation to commercially driven excavation projects. They document the Basamuk Refinery and Ramu NiCo project in Madang, both majority owned by Ramu NiCo Management MCC Ltd., as well as the concerted and sustained efforts of local communities to protest and curb the negative effects of action undertaken by these development projects. In the text which accompanied the exhibition of Linke’s Prospecting Ocean at CNR-ISMAR in Venice in 2018, Stefanie Hessler writes that “the images recall the history of colonization in Papua New Guinea, ongoing economic dependency, and asymmetrical power relations,” and describes his overall project as laying bare "an intricate network of dynamics, dissecting how information is negotiated between scientific, legalism and economic entities and institutions, on both local and international levels.”^[2] Indeed the content of Linke’s photo-essay was substantiated elsewhere in the exhibition, particularly in its central work: an hour-long film which ends with footage recorded by the artist during his trip to Papua New Guinea which properly investigates the experience and activism of local landowners and mine-impacted communities whose livelihoods are affected by the operations of seabed mining for copper, gold, zinc and silver by Nautilus Minerals Inc. and related exploitative industries which exist in the area. Together these different layers and outputs of research address the mounting pressure for thought and action to be dedicated to the future management of oceans in a way that leaves no photographic or filmic capacity unexplored. As such, it is emblematic of Linke’s commitment to exploring the limits of his artistic practice. –Elsa Gray

^[1] https://www.arminlinke.com
^[2] Stefanie Hessler, “Armin Linke - Prospecting Ocean,” commissioned and produced by TBA21—Academy, curated by Stefanie Hessler,” exhibition text available at here.

CURRENTLY ON VIEW:

Group show: Becoming Ocean: a social conversation about the Ocean

Curator: Hélène Guenin, Chus Martínez, Sébastien Ruiz, and Marie-Ann Yemsi

Venue: Villa Arson, Nice

Date: 8 May 2025 -  24 August 2025

The exhibition is part of the program for the Nice Biennial of Arts and the Ocean, organized by the City of Nice as part of the United Nations Conference on the Oceans (UNOC3) to be held in Nice from June 9 to 13, 2025.

PAST EXHIBITIONS:

Group show: Remedios. Where new land might grow

Curator: Daniela Zyman

Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba
Date: April 14, 2023 -  March 30,  2024

Solo show: Armin Linke: Prospecting Ocean

Curator: Stefanie Hessler

Venue: Istituto di Scienze Marine (CNR-ISMAR), Venice

Date: May 23, 2018 - September 30, 2018