SUPERFLEX, Convening #2
March 9–10, 2019
An Interspecies Gathering
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 and music composed by Dark Morph. Dive-In is the first large scale construction resulting from the Deep Sea Minding research.
Programme
Day 1 - Saturday, March 9
The Commune, Ace Hotel Palm Springs
1pm: Welcome
Markus Reymann, director of TBA21–Academy
Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, founder of TBA21
1:10pm: Introduction to Deep Sea Minding, a Desert in Pink
SUPERFLEX
1:20pm: (If) We Were Fish
Group activity led by Alex Jordan
1:35pm: Through a Glass Darkly - What We Can and Cannot Know About Animal Behaviour, and How Machines Might Help
Lecture by Alex Jordan
1:55pm: Discoverable Phenomena in the Secret Nature of
Complex Coral Reef Ecosystems
Lecture by Shanee Stopnitzky
2:15pm: Interspecies Conversations
Panel discussion with Alex Jordan, Shanee Stopnitzki and Markus Reymann
2:35pm Invert, Pervert
Lecture by Eva Hayward
2:55pm Fishy Tales of Turkey Tails and Sea Level Rising
Lecture by Maureen Penjueli
3:15: Interspecies Conversations
Panel discussion with Eva Hayward, Maureen Penjueli and Rasmus Nielsen
3:35: Screening
Digicom Learning group
4pm - Being a Mermaid
Interview with Mermaid Leilani and Rasmus Nielsen
4:10pm: Q&A
5:30pm Dive-In by SUPERFLEX
Site visit and screening of film
Adams Park 72500 Thrush Road, Palm Desert
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
Salton Sea
1:30pm - Armageddon and Resurrection in Darwin’s Dreamponds
Lecture by Alex Jordan
1:50pm: The Day of the 2 Suns (The Awakening)
Lecture by Maureen Penjueli
2:10pm Mosquito Net
Performance by Cecilia Bengolea
4pm: Dark Morph Fish Performance @Ace Hotel Palms Springs
DJ set at the Stargazing deck
Commissioned and Produced by TBA–Academy
Led by SUPERFLEX
In collaboration with DESERT X and Ace Hotel & Swim Club Palm Spring
About 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.
About The Current
TBA21–Academy’s The Current is concerned with the state of the ocean and the discourse around it and seeks to provide a platform for the cultivation of interdisciplinary thought, the exchange of ideas and new knowledge production. Organised in three-year cycles, the programme centres around annual expeditions at sea and land-based Convenings linked to the exploratory theme of each ocean encounter. Each cycle of The Current is led by one or more Expedition Leaders selected by the Academy, who in turn nominate Fellows–artists, curators, scientists, and other cultural actors–to join a collective research project unfolding over the three years. The Spanish curator Chus Martínez and Danish artist collective SUPERFLEX have been appointed by TBA21–Academy as Expedition Leaders of the second three-year cycle of The Current. Their projects will run in parallel from 2018 to 2020.
About TBA21–Academy
TBA21–Academy leads artists, scientists, and thought-leaders on expeditions of collaborative discovery. Founded by Francesca von Habsburg and led by Director Markus Reymann, the Academy is dedicated to fostering a deeper understanding of the ocean through the lens of art and to engendering creative solutions to its most pressing issues. TBA21–Academy commissions interdisciplinary research that catalyses engagement, stimulates new knowledge, and inspires artistic production. Established in 2011, the nonprofit’s programme is informed by a belief in the power of exchange between disciplines and in the ability of the arts as a vessel for communication, change, and action.
