VERTICAL MIGRATION

Deep down in the dark ocean you find an incredibly rich biodiversity. Every night, the largest biological migration on Earth takes place. Endless amounts of creatures travel closer to the surface to feed. Among them are the fascinating Siphonophores, who appear as alien creatures to us humans. Nevertheless, they play an important role in the fragile balances in nature by harvesting large amounts of CO2 from the sea.

These important creatures are the main character in SUPERFLEX's artwork Vertical Migration which is a documentaristic but still speculative visualisation of getting close to another living being - a Siphonophore. So close that we might even get a glimpse of how the world looks from the other side seen from the Siphonophore. Since Siphonophores are quite difficult to get close to and capture with a normal camera, Kollision has worked with SUPERFLEX to develop a digital experience of the lived life in the dark ocean. For that, we have made use of interactive real-time graphics, working with translating the sparse knowledge about Siphonophores into an immersive experience of almost merging with the creature.

The artwork will be realised in different versions - interactive and as a film - and will be installed in several places around the world. For example projected on the UN building in New York during the 76th UN General Assembly, on BLOX in Copenhagen and Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg. SUPERFLEX hereby invites the Siphonophore as an ambassador of the silent majority that we share our planet with. Besides, it has also found its way to other media, including an augmented reality experience in collaboration with the Google Arts & Culture platform.

Exhibitions:
UN building, New York, US, 21.09.2021 - 24.09.2021
BLOX, Copenhagen, Denmark, 28.10.2021 - 28.11.2021
The exhibition Marble, at KUNSTEN, Aalborg, Denmark, 04.03.2022 - 21.08.2022
The exhibition, The Sea Is Not an Abyss, Bauhaus Museum Dessau, Germany, 31.03.2022 - 04.09.2022
The exhibition Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams and Data, at Pedion Areos, Athen, Greece, 23.05.2022 - 10.07.2022
The exhibition There Is No Such Thing as Bad Weather, at Maison du Danemark, Paris, France, 18.11.2022 - 29.10.2023
The exhibition This is the Tip of the Iceberg, at Generator, Harbor Hall Gallery, USF St. Petersburg, Tampa, Florida, US, 06.10.2023 - 22.11.2023
The Light Art Festival, Noor Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 30.11.2023 - 16.12.2023
The exhibition Fish and Chips, at Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea, 04.06.2024 - 28.07.2024
The exhibition Lines — Aligning your consciousness with the flow, at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan 22.06.2024 -14.10.2024
More to come ...

Vertical Migration is commissioned by ART 2030 and TBA21–Academy, and supported by Avatar Alliance Foundation, Dalio Philanthropies, OceanX, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), New Carlsberg Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Beckett Fonden, and Danish Arts Foundation.

Vertical Migration was developed as a close collaboration between SUPERFLEX and Kollision. Vertical Migration is part of ‘Interspecies Assembly’ by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030.