STURGEON 2424 // LIFE USUALLY FINDS A WAY
BLI 2424 // JETA ZAKONISHT GJEN NJË MËNYRË
by FrauVonDa// Claudia van Hasselt & Nicolas Wiese (Berlin)
16’
Premiered at the Durres Biennale of Contemporary Art 2024 (German Pavillon)
This video/audio piece is actually a tryptich:
The first part (7 minutes) is centered around the Oder river, which is located in three different countries – Czech Republic, Poland and Germany, the largerst part running through Poland and about half of the river’s course being the national border between Poland and Germany. After a poisonous algae bloom followed by mass extinction of fish in summer 2022, various European environmental science institutions started a long-term project for a better understanding and protection of the river. FrauVonDa// are collaborating with one of them, the Leibniz Istitute for Freshwater Ecology (IGB Berlin), asking the open question: how can we as artists contribute, in close exchange with the scientists and the general population?
The second part (4,5 minutes) is focussed on audio and the physical effect of low frequencies – the frequency range that is essential for fish, as vibration from low frequencies serves as a means of information and communication for them.
For us humans, the vibration sense has gone to waste during the course of evolution – can we revive it?
The third part (4,5 minutes) is centered around the Baltic Sea and features the marine biologist Tony Cederberg from the Åland Islands (Finland). The Batlic Sea is the youngest and most shallow sea on earth – at the same time, it has the highest ratio of human population around its shores, in relation to water volume.
The Baltic Sea has hardly started to unfold its evolutionary potential of biodiversity – what will its future look like?
The sturgeon, a fish species that has been around before the dinosaurs and survived to this day, has virtually disappeared from both the Oder river and the Baltic Sea during the 20th century. Currently, the IGB and other institutions are working on a sturgeon re-settlement program (some video and sound footage used here originates from a sturgeon breeding station). We chose the sturgeon’s perspective as a recurring view- point (and listening point) in this work: will they survive together with humankind, or even after humankind disappears…? What will the sturgeon’s life conditions be like in 400 years, will they adapt to an unforeseeable hybrid future?