Nadia Huggins and Tessa Mars: otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua

The Ocean is a common space between different horizons that seek to affirm life on our planet. At the heart of contemporary emancipatory processes, which invariably extend to non-human forms of life, lies an urgent imperative: to transcend the landbound perspectives that have historically shaped and constrained both our sensory systems and our modes of knowledge production. An oceanic perspective offers an alternative framework—one that enables the formation of life through perpetual motion.

The Ocean, both as an origin and a destination, is the meeting point for otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua, an exhibition curated by Yina Jiménez Suriel, featuring newly commissioned works by Nadia Huggins and Tessa Mars. Set within TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space at the former Chiesa di San Lorenzo in Venice, the exhibition invites the audience into an expansive dialogue about perception, power, and transformation.

otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua is unveiled at Ocean Space as the culmination of The Current IV,  a three-year-long research project led by Jiménez Suriel. In its fourth iteration, The Current focuses on the Caribbean by studying the aesthetic strategies of the Maroon communities in the region. Launched in 2015 as TBA21–Academy’s flagship curatorial fellowship program, The Current has long fostered transdisciplinary collaborations and artistic inquiries into oceanic ecologies, inspiring radical new approaches to knowledge production. Thus, the exhibition also marks the tenth anniversary of this multi-year program.

The works in otras montañas, las que andan sueltas bajo el agua explore the potential of improvisation~freestyle as a means to move beyond binary constructs and awaken sensorial capacities that have long been constrained by rigid systems of production and control. A shipwreck is not a wreck (2025), a video installation by Nadia Huggins, places viewers within the skeletal remains of a shipwreck, where submerged bodies, corals, and rocks evoke deep temporal experiences. This immersive work encourages reconsideration of artificial borders constructed around time, perception, and movement. Above sea level, human posture is largely vertical—standing, sitting, walking—but below, buoyancy shifts orientation, opening the possibility for new ways of being.

Tessa Mars extends this exploration with a call to the ocean (2025), an immersive painting-installation introducing “awakened” characters navigating a hybrid space—mountains within mountains—where they embody the fluidity of improvisation~freestyle. Through layering, texture, and sound, Mars envisions improvisation as a cyclical process, resisting co-optation while challenging rigid structures of power. Her work poses a vital question: How can we remain attuned to the ever-shifting demands of our amphibious reality without succumbing to fatigue?

Together, these interwoven narratives propose three monumental challenges: transcending terrestrial perspectives, reimagining life-support systems, and confronting entrenched power structures. Through their work, Huggins and Mars demonstrate how improvisation~freestyle—deeply embedded in Caribbean cultural practices and beyond—offers a pathway to urgent transformations in the ways we think, move, and sustain life.

The exhibition will be accompanied in the Ocean Space research room by Echoes of the Sanctuary, presenting TBA21–Academy’s long-term work in Jamaica weaving together marine conservation, regenerative development, and artistic production. In addition to making this program public in Venice for the first time, the exhibition presents the eponymous research project (2022–2025) led by critical geographer Louise Carver exploring the affirmative possibilities of convivial conservation with TBA21–Academy’s partner organization in Jamaica, the Alligator Head Foundation.

Convivial (literally "living with") conservation is an international research and advocacy agenda promoting “coexistence, (bio)diversity, and justice,” shifting the norms of mainstream approaches. The exposition outlines the contours of this work and its possibilities in Jamaica, aligning with the Alligator Head Foundation’s vision for transformative, practical experimentation—combining embedded artistic residencies, research, advocacy, and community-based conservation for the decade to come. Shaped by urgent calls for change in planetary governance, Convivial Conservation advocates for the reconnection between nature and people, and the economic, epistemic, and emotional healing required for co-existence to become possible.

In addition to the preview event on April 4, the exhibition’s public program will include live performances, music, and conversation held during the Venice Biennale of Architecture vernissage week (May 7–May 11, 2025).