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Mad about the Ocean
2011-09-27 10:35
What:
Oceanomania by Mark Dion
Where:
Oceanographic Museum of Monaco and the
Villa Paloma
When: 12 April 2011 to 30 September 2011
The exhibition closes this Friday
Get a new perspective on the Sea!
When we consider that two thirds of the globe is covered in water, it's surprising that we call our planet 'Earth' at all. 'Ocean' might be nearer the mark; and with the appalling effects of the Japanese tsunami still making headlines, the astonishing power of the sea - as well as its beauty and utility - is something of which we are strongly conscious, even in the comparatively placid harbours of the Côte d'Azur.
American artist and naturalist Mark Dion has brought his new exhibition 'Oceanomania' to two of the most exciting spaces in Monaco for a major summer show. Hot on the heels of
Damian Hirst's 'Cornucopia' (which was likewise arranged like a 'cabinet of curiosities') The
Oceanographic Museum has been staging
Oceanomania: Souvenirs from the Mysterious Seas.
Two very different ideas form the framework of Dion's exhibit: the Census of Marine Life, a vast survey of over 6000 species completed in 2010, and the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil
rig, the accident which led to one of the world's most extensive spillages and which will continue to provoke debate about the ethics and management of deep sea drilling for decades to come. From these starting points, Dion poses questions about the evolution of Man's fascination for the sea in terms of time
and space, design, literature and art.
Central to Don's concept is the 'cabinet of curiosities' or 'Wunderkammer'. Dating from Renaissance times, the wunderkammer was exactly that: a pre-televisual display of objects of various sizes and shapes deisgned to inspire wonderment, enjoyment and scientific debate. Dion's exhibition comprises everything associated with Neptune, from small fossils, life-size marine remains and specially-mounted fish to a polar bear, along with manmade marine-inspired objets d'art and scientific
documentation.
Baie de Monaco - Claude Monet
The accompanying exhibition at the
Villa Paloma presents the ocean as a territory for exploration
and discovery - in this case by twenty famous artists - including the Italian spatialist Lucio Fontana, the English romantic and master of seascapes
JMW Turner, and Alphonse
Visconti, who was responsible for the interior decoration of the Monte-Carlo Casino.
Bernard Buffet’s monumental series
Twenty thousand leagues under the sea will also form part of this important exhibition. But the highlight for many visitors is the two unique - and rarely shown - paintings by
Claude Monet depicting the bay of Monaco, on display for the
first time for decades.
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Le hublot géant du Nautilus - 1989
Mark Dion, who has designed both exhibitions, is one of the world's foremost ecological artists. He has shown his installations extensively in America (Oakland Museum of California, Miami Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum and MOMA in New York), London (at the Natural History Museum and the Tate Gallery) and is well represented throughout Western Europe in Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna and Paris.
Oceanomania, which runs until the end of September in Monaco, will surely rank among his more surprising, challenging, and thought-provoking exhibitions.