AQUARIA, Or the Illusion of a Boxed Sea

Group exhibition

18.03–06.09.2021: MAAT, Lisbon, PT

The exhibition Aquaria – Or the Illusion of a Boxed Sea reflects on the possibilities and new questions that arise we could come up against when rethinking our relationship with the marine world; they are complex systems which, in the paradigm of modernity and urbanisation, embody the transformation of nature into culture, with the help of technology and capital. This separation of culture as an entity divorced from the organic-natural world stems from scientific and rational attempts to categorise and organise. However, these sorts of constructs that divide culture from nature are no longer convincing in the context of a new climate regime which appeals to new narratives that go beyond the hierarchies built around mankind and its exploration of resources and bodies.

Curated by Angela Rui, the exhibition path unfolds through 11 installation by artists, designers, filmmakers, composers and researcher, each offering different points of view to emphasise how the ways of understanding the marine environment were once envisaged and how they should be reconsidered today.

With: Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen, Julien Creuzet, Simon Denny, Marjolijn Dijkman & Toril Johannessen, Michela de Mattei, Alice des Reis, Eva Jack, Joan Jonas, Armin Linke, Superflex and Stef Veldhuis.

MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology)