Stainless steel table, Aurelia Aurita, aquarium, aquarium technique, single-channel video projection of Cubozoa, glass panel
Table dimensions: 85 x 260 x 100 cm, tank: 80 x 80 x 80cm, video: 5 min
Commissioned by TBA21–Academy, London

In an installation centered around jellyfish, Tue Greenfort explores complex ecosystems and the consciousness of these aquatic organisms. Having roamed the seas for at least 500 million years, jellyfish are among the oldest animal species to populate the planet after cyanobacteria and sponges. With warming ocean temperatures, jellyfish spread into regions where they were not found previously, and overall numbers increase, posing a threat and indicating imbalances in ecosystems. Jellyfish plagues have been reported to increasingly impact coastal regions, affecting water quality, development of fish stocks and tourism.
 
For this new work, Greenfort presents an aquarium with living jellyfish, mounted on a steel scaffolding table exposing the electronics of the installation, in which a projection of videos is integrated that were filmed during expeditions with TBA21–Academy to Papua New Guinea and the Marquesas. Notions of water and flow, exchange, interspecies relationships and ecological entanglements are present in the work as much as question regarding alterity, the consciousness of other organisms, and the ideas we project onto “nature”. As gender, environmental and science researcher Eva Hayward has shown, jellyfish are beings with ways of knowing and sensing that challenge anthropocentric logics and epistemological taming.[1] The life cycles and modes of reproduction that differ from human and many land- and sea-based organisms, as well as their lack of bones, a centralized heart or brain but distribution of nerves in a net spread over the body challenge our ideas of consciousness, ethics and relationships to more-than-human entities, urging for a shift in planetary awareness. The work, much like Greenfort’s previous practice, is aimed at developing ecological thought as radical thinking and aesthetic production departing from within an interest in complex ecosystems and organic growth.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tue Greenfort’s interdisciplinary practice deals with issues such as the public and private realms, nature and culture. Interweaving these subjects with the language of art he formulates a multi-faceted critique of today's dominant economic and scientific production. Intrigued by the dynamics in the natural world, Greenfort’s work often evolves from ecology and its history, including the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity.
Tue Greenfort (*1973 in Holbaek / Denmark) lives and works in Berlin where he is represented by Johann König. As a participant in dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, Greefort was co-curator of an archive on multi-species co-evolution, The Worldly House. He has had extensive solo presentations at Berlinische Galerie (2012), South London Gallery (2011), Kunstverein Braunschweig (2008) and Secession, Vienna (2007). He has participated in numerous international exhibitions at institutions including Kunstverein Hannover (2011), Royal Academy of Arts, London (2009), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2009), the Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples (2008), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007) and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2006). Among his publications the most comprehensive, Linear Deflection, was published by Walther König in 2009.