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The Current II: Deep Sea Minding: A Desert In Pink

Convening #2 led by SUPERFLEX

March 9 – March 10, 2019

SUPERFLEX

SUPERFLEX: Dive-in. Courtesy of Desert X and the artists. Photo by Lance Gerber.

The Current

TBA21–Academy

SUPERFLEX

With screenings, performances, lectures and conversations by Alex Jordan, Eva Hayward, Shanee Stopnitzky, Maureen Penjueli, Dark Morph and other notables.

TBA21–Academy presents the second convening led by SUPERFLEX, Expedition Leaders of The Current II, exploring a theme that they call Deep Sea Minding.

The inspiration and temporary venue for Deep Sea Minding, the second convening, is the desert, the driest of lands. The connection between the desert and the ocean is a journey in time. From the remembrance of a desert that was once submerged in water to a future when the depths of the sea will conquer it again. The sea awaits patiently for its return, and in the meantime, the Californian desert will remain the testimony to a changing reality tainted in shades of pink.

SUPERFLEX conceived Deep Sea Minding under the umbrella of TBA21–Academy’s three-year fellowship as a transdisciplinary research project merging art and science to engage with marine life at this crucial moment of our common history. As seawater level rises, fish will conquer our quotidian spaces and us, humans, are fully responsible to prepare our habitat for these future residents. A habitat to be imagined in pink, a colour that will attract coral polyps, facilitating the flourishing of a whole new ecosystem. When humans are long gone, fish will populate our homes. The focus of the research of the Deep Sea Minding project is to imagine and explore solutions for this sub-aquatic future.

Held in Coachella Valley, the second Convening will coincide with SUPERFLEX's presentation of Dive-In, a large outdoor cinema that will project marine scenes while expecting corals and fish to take over its porous pink structure. Commissioned by Desert X biennial in collaboration with TBA21–Academy, Dive-In is the first large scale construction resulting from the Deep Sea Minding research.

Commissioned and Produced by TBA–Academy | Led by SUPERFLEX | In collaboration with DESERT X and ACE Hotel & Swim Club Palm Spring

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LOCATIONS

Main location
The Commune
Ace Hotel & Swim Club
701 E Palm Canyon Dr
Palm Spring, California 92264
United States

Suturday Night
Desert X Venue

Sunday afternoon
Salton Sea Visitor Center

PROGRAM

DAY 1 - Saturday, March 9, 2019
The Commune, Ace Hotel Palm Springs

1 pm - Welcome
Markus Reymann, director of TBA21–Academy
Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, founder of TBA21

1.10 pm - Introduction to Deep Sea Minding, a Desert in Pink
SUPERFLEX

1.20 pm - (If) We Were Fish
Group activity led by Alex Jordan

1.35 pm - Through a Glass Darkly - What We Can and Cannot Know About Animal Behaviour, and How Machines Might Help
Lecture by Alex Jordan

1.55 pm - Discoverable Phenomena in the Secret Nature of
Complex Coral Reef Ecosystems
Lecture by Shanee Stopnitzky

2.15 pm- Interspecies Conversations
Panel discussion with Alex Jordan, Shanee Stopnitzki and Markus Reymann

2.35 pm - Invert, Pervert
Lecture by Eva Hayward

2.55 pm - Fishy Tales of Turkey Tails and Sea Level Rising
Lecture by Maureen Penjueli

3.15 pm - Interpescies Converstions
Panel discussion with Eva Hayward, Maureen Penjueli and Rasmus Nielsen

3.35 pm - Screening
Digicom Learning group

4 pm - Being a Mermaid
Interview with Mermaid Leilani and Rasmus Nielsen

4.10 pm - Q&A

5.30 pm - Dive-In by SUPERFLEX
Site visit and screeaning of film
Adams Park 72500 Thrush Road, Palm Desert

9 pm - Evening Program at the installation of Gary Simmons Recapturing Memories of the Black Ark
Performances by Dark Morph (JÓNSI + CMVH) and Cecilia
Bengolea, DJ set by G33ZY
Indio Armory 43143 Jackson St Indio, CA 92201

DAY 2 - Sunday, March 10, 2019
Salton sea

1.30 pm - Armageddon and Resurrection in Darwin’s Dreamponds
Lecture by Alex Jordan

1.50 pm - The Day of the 2 Suns (The Awakening)
Lecture by Maureen Penjueli

2.10 pm - Mosquito Net
Performance by Cecilia Bengolea

4 pm - Dark Morph Fish Performance @ Ace Hotel Palms Springs
DJ set at the Stargazing deck

SUPERFLEX

SUPERFLEX is a collective of artists founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Bjørnstjerne Christiansen and Rasmus Nielsen. Through a complex and diverse practice, SUPERFLEX challenges the role of the artist today and explores the nature of globalisation and the systems of power. Describing their work as tools, multiple areas of application or use are implied. SUPERFLEX’ practice is, as the name suggests, not bound to any form or context.

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