HOMO SARGASSUM
ECOLOGY
An Alliance between Contemporary Art, Science and Technology
to support Public Health and let our Planet
BREATHE AGAIN.
An immersive video-exhibition project conceived and organized by
Louisa Marajo and Vanessa Selk
Project Summary
HOMO SARGASSUM is an itinerary exhibition & video project inviting over 25 artists from the Caribbean, West Africa and Latin America, to collaborate with scientists, ethnologists, researchers and tech companies on a major ecological & public health challenge impacting the three regions: the SARGASSUM algae.
Artistic, poetic, scientific and technological productions will immerse the public in the marine world, for us to better understand, transform and live with the SARGASSUM. The selected productions will represent creative and concrete solutions, beyond communities, industries and borders, to contribute to building a single ecological consciousness about the space we share on this planet, through the air we breathe and the oceans we tragically pollute. Because the marine world are the lungs of our planet.
While facing the scourge mankind has produced, spectators will be embarked on an immersive journey through continents and oceans to reconnect with the underwater world, until the awakening of a HOMO SARGASSUM.
Why this Project is crucial today
The Sargassum, a seaweed without roots originally found in the Sargasso Sea, East of Florida, has become a major concern for our planet. Due to its uncontrolled proliferation caused by climate change, deforestation and human pollution originated in Brazil, this brown algae is now releasing toxic gases that provoke severe health and environmental damages. They cause still unexplored respiratory dysfunctions, kill marine life and have a disastrous economic impact on coastal states.
The coronavirus pandemic has further increased the vulnerability of those who suffer from a respiratory condition or form of pollution.
It is therefore urgent that tech companies, scientific laboratories, investors, artists & creatives be solidary and bind their minds to find solutions that can improve the lives of coastal populations living in West Africa,, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. This exhibition and video project focuses on the shared concerns and visions between these regions, from an insular and continental point of view, while paying particular attention to under-represented communities of the Caribbean.
A Journey in Five Progressive Steps
The video & exhibition project is an immersive odyssey in five chapters, five progressive steps going through learning and experiencing, before leading to an Awakening through the Reconnection of Humankind with Nature, a Human Rebirth as Homo Sargassum, being One with the Ocean again:
1. Learn to Prevent
2. Alert to Protect
3. Too late to Breathe ?
4. Destroy to Restore
5. Merge to Transcend
Each chapter will immerse the public in the marine underwater world through contemporary artistic works, as well as sound installations with musical creations and ancestral readings from poets, authors, philosophers, a pedagogic explanation by an expert or researcher, and a scientific production or technological innovation related to the sargassum.
The detailed suggested program available on request.
Confirmed Participants
Artists: José Bertogal, Minia Biabiany, Camille Chedda, Xavier Cortada, Nicolas Derné, Morel Doucet, Alejandro Durán, Edouard Duval-Carrié, Billy Gerard Frank, Guy Gabon, Annabel Guérédrat, Gwladys Gambie Nadia Huggins, Dominique Hunter, Deborah Jack, Mirtho Linguet, Anina Major, Louisa Marajo, Joiri Minaya, Ricardo Ozier-Lafontaine, Juan Ernesto Requena, María Rueda, Henri Tauliaut, Philippe Thomarel and more yet tbc.
Researchers: Dr. Martin Munro (Florida State University), Dr. Florence Ménez (University of the French West Indies), Dr. Nico Wienders (Florida State University) Dr. Malcom Ferdinand (CNRS) and more yet tbc.
Partners:
Winthrop-King Institute (FSU), Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science (FSU), Cortada Projects, Rubis Mécénat Cultural Fund and its InPulse Project, Sara and Holdex.
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