Felipe Castelblanco: Driftless

The Haus for Media Art Oldenburg is pleased to present the video installation titled Driftless by Felipe Castelblanco in the Pulverturm (Powder Tower).

Pulverturm belongs to the former castle wall of Oldenburg and is the only remaining building of the fortifications of the city. Its history goes back to 1529, when Count Anton I (1505–73) renewed the city’s military facilities. Since 1996, the Pulverturm has been used for cultural purposes during the summer months.

Felipe Castelblanco’s Driftless is a three-channel video installation that presents various seascapes as open, public spaces for artistic intervention. In the piece, a performer drifts across vast bodies of water on a makeshift raft, referencing makeshift strategies for border-crossing. This cinematic and performative journey across the planet creates a visual narrative that draws on migration stories and explores the ocean as a post-national, unruly territory through radical seafaring acts.

 Felipe Castelblanco is a Colombian American artist and filmmaker whose socially engaged practice operates at the intersection of cinema, performance, and territorial research. He is postdoctoral fellow at the Institute Art Gender Nature, HGK Basel FHNW. He holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, and a PhD from the Kunstuniversität Linz and HGK Basel FHNW. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he is the founder of The Para-Site School as well as Media Collectives across Europe and Latin America.

Opening times: Friday 2–6pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am–6pm

During Nacht der Museen (Night of the Museums): September 6, 7pm
In the framework of the solo exhibition by Felipe Castelblanco, Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg and the research team Plants_Intelligence present Kiwicha a lecture performance by Julia Mensch and a screening of Solarceptors a virtual reality artwork by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, and the documentary film Jouenan betiyeng jabuayenán [Listen to the Plants that Guide] by research partner and collaborator Ayênan Quinchoa Juajibioy (a member of the Kamëntšá nation). All the works were realized in the framework of Plants_Intelligence. Learning like a Plant (2022 - 2025) a research project by Yvonne Volkart, Felipe Castelblanco, Julia Mensch and Rasa Smite. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and hosted by the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW.