giugno-luglio 2023


I will take part in this residency with the current project in Marseille with the oingoing project (2017-2023), focusing on the perception of the sea mediated by the visual means of video and photography. These media convey a thought, as well as a sentimental approach to the relationship between land and sea, man and nature: they structure themselves into a composite installation by revealing a 'mediated sea ecosystem'. My project is based on the identification of reference points for measuring sea levels on certain shores of the Mediterranean - in Venice, Stromboli and Strombolicchio, for example - chosen as sites in perpetual danger. The Marseilles tide gauge, the oldest in the Mediterranean, was also one of the places where I carried out a symbolic survey. Set up in 1883, it is considered to be the 'hydrographic zero': this scale serves as a reference not only for the Mediterranean basin, but also for the oceans, and is used to measure the height of mountains. My videos become markers for the ideal measurement of Mediterranean aquatic space: I seek to document the places where sea and land touch and interact, to define a perceptual counter-space that is shaped by a viewpoint at sea level 0. The expanse of the sea thus becomes a metaphorical terrain for representing what is sometimes invisible. Nevertheless, I plan to explore other sites to record the low tides in the Mediterranean, particularly in North Africa and Italy, such as the Strait of Messina, a place of historical and mythical crossings as well as an important geophysical reference point for the study of marine currents.






© novella oliana 2024