Sensing the Sea is a group exhibition using notions of the sea as a thematic starting point for new artistic productions and exchanges between Denmark and China. The exhibition opened on July 6, 2024 at The Nordic Contemporary Art Center (NAC) in Xiamen, China, and ran until September 7, 2024.
The exhibition includes artworks by Arendse Krabbe, Christine Laquet, Gedske Ramløv, Karen Land Hansen, Mariana Gomes Gonçalves, Nina Wengel, and Studio ThinkingHand. It is co-curated by Cila Brosius, who has specialised in Chinese contemporary art for the past ten years, and Tijana Mišković, who focuses on transcultural art practices.
Previously shown at SAK Kunstbygning in Svendborg, Sensing the Sea has been adjusted and transformed for a Chinese context in the port city of Xiamen, opening new dialogues across cultures and geographical areas. In an increasingly polarised world, the exhibition focuses on interconnectivity — what the fluidity of water allows us to embrace. Sensing the Sea not only crosses geographical borders, but also invites us to think beyond ideological, bodily and disciplinary boundaries.
Sensing the Sea (installation view). The Nordic Contemporary Art Center (NAC), Xiamen, 2024. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Gedske Ramløv, More Black than the Darkness. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Works in the Exhibition
Krabbe and Gomes Gonçalves’ collaborative video and sound installation Sympathetic Resonance (2024) explores the notion of resonances by immersing visitors in sound and moving images recorded along the seashores of Lisbon, Copenhagen and Xiamen, while also inviting audiences to participate in instruction-based activities.
Arendse Krabbe and Mariana Gomes Gonçalves, Sympathetic Resonance. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Nina Wengel’s large-scale abstract paintings embrace both the comfort and threat the sea embodies, while reflecting on the overwhelming reality of human-induced marine contamination.
Nina Wengel, In you, I am drowning, my sorrows & In you, the heavenly light reflects. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Nina Wengel, 2024-1-2-3. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Nina Wengel, The Crystal Lamp & 2024-1-2-3. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Gedske Ramløv’s hyper-detailed drawings and sound installation create parallels between the human lungs, the ebb and flow of marine tides, and the role of the moon in this breath-like phenomenon.
Christine Laquet imagines a nonhuman, post-petrochemical world by using materials such as white Dehua porcelain to address coral bleaching, and cyanobacteria to create pigments for drawings.
Christine Laquet, installation view. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Christine Laquet, Little Angry Dragons (green – pink – red – orange – yellow). Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Christine Laquet, Don’t you sea changes? Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Karen Land Hansen’s floating sculpture visualises what is normally invisible to the human eye — the seabed — based on data obtained through an ongoing collaboration with a team of scientists from GEUS (The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland).
Karen Land Hansen, Floating Seabed Expanded & Gedske Ramløv, More Black than the Darkness. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Studio ThinkingHand’s DEEP TIME (2023) examines ancient history by incorporating marine sediment up to 12,000 years old into ice-core-shaped glass columns. INTERTIDAL SYNTHESIS (2024) explores the in-between zones of machines and organisms through footage of soft robotic agents interacting with different intertidal environments.
Studio ThinkingHand, DEEP TIME. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Studio ThinkingHand, DEEP TIME (Mt. Etna). Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Studio ThinkingHand, INTERTIDAL SYNTHESIS. Photo: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.
Practical Information
Opening: Saturday, July 6, 2024, 15:00
Exhibition period: July 7 – September 7, 2024
Venue: The Nordic Contemporary Art Center (NAC), No. 53, Shangshili, Aotou Community, Jinhai Street, Xiang’an District, Xiamen, China
The exhibition was supported by The Nordic Contemporary Art Center (NAC), S.C. Van Fonden, The Royal Danish Embassy in China, Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen, Grosserer L.F. Foghts Fond and The Danish Arts Foundation. Special thanks to Région Pays de La Loire, Loire Atlantique, Station Biologique de Roscoff, PMH Systems, GEUS and Danish Art Workshops.
Photos: YE Shaobin 叶少彬.