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SUPERFLEX
Vertical Migration, 2021

Visualisations by Kollision. Courtesy of SUPERFLEX.

TBA21–Academy

SUPERFLEX

Commissions & Productions

Single-channel video installation, color, sound
Based on "Deep Sea Minding" research project,
Commissioned by TBA21–Academy

Every night, the biggest migration of biomass on earth occurs in our oceans. It is featured by a mysterious group of animals largely unknown by humans, due to their unpronounceable names and their remote habitats, almost unreachable. But at night, these alien-looking creatures surface from the ocean depths in the search for food and their presence grows unavoidable. The siphonophores are bioluminescent, so when swimming in the ocean appear as suspended in a dark abyss. Confronted by their large numbers and astonishing appearance, we humans can only but rethink of our presupposed predominance on this planet.

Until now, vertical migration has been a natural process for some species, moving vertically in the water depths due to age, reproduction or feeding needs. A key act for survival that anticipates what will happen to every individual on earth: the necessity to migrate vertically will expand to all species at the same rhythm of the sea level rising.

Vertical Migration is a film by SUPERFLEX portraying the significant journey from the deep sea to the surface of one of the most abundant underwater species. The large-scale projection of their hypnotic swimming will act almost as a life retransmission of the massive vertical migration that siphonophores lead every single night, lighting up the projection screen in the same way as they light up the oceans. In representation of the silent majority, the siphonophores will send a warning and reminder to us, humans, that our future is only to be shared with every other species.

Superflex is a Danish artist group founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Superflex describe their projects as Tools, as proposals that invite people to participate in and communicate the development of experimental models that alter the economic production conditions. Often the projects are assisted by experts who bring in their special interest, these tools can then be further used and modified by their users.

This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.

ARTISTS' WEBSITE

https://superflex.net

RELATED PROGRAM

SUPERFLEX: Vertical Migration