Over Land and Sea

In their video works, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla question traditional assumptions about what classifies life as human or animal by examining where and how human and non-human actors come into contact. Raptor’s Rapture (2012) draws on the oldest musical instrument to open up new perspectives on the origins of culture.

The work was inspired by the discovery of a flute carved by a Homo sapiens around 35,000 years ago from the wing bone of a griffon vulture. The find was discovered in 2009 by archaeologists from the University of Tübingen in the Hohler Fels cave in Southern Germany. The instrument bears witness to the early importance of music, which evidently played a central role not only in the formation of social structures but also in the growth of populations and their territorial expansion. Music, therefore, was a crucial element in the evolutionary development of the human species.

In the video, flautist Bernadette Käfer, specializing in prehistoric instruments, explores the sounds of the bone flute in the presence of a live griffon vulture. The performance has a surreal dimension: the bird – as a descendant of the species from whose bones the instrument was once made – is confronted with the acoustic relics of early human culture. The strange yet somehow familiar sound of the flute appears to be a time capsule reaching us from the origins of music and language.

With this juxtaposition, the artist duo Allora & Calzadilla draw a bridge between past and present and renegotiate the relation between human and non-human existence. Raptor’s Rapture alludes to our relationship with the endangered griffon vulture: humans have always taken from nature what they felt they needed to survive – or what served their cultural enhancement. In the face of climate change, a yearning for a return to an existence in harmony with nature is emerging. The video work thus also addresses the current discourse on the elevation of humans over nature and, from an anthropocentric perspective, emphasizes the need to preserve biodiversity.

In their works, Louis d’Heudières and Nina Kuttler explore themes relating to the Anthropocene, the interconnection between nature and culture and deep time – a concept encompassing geological and cosmic processes extending far beyond the human timeframe. For the exhibition, the artists have developed a speculative vision of the future.

Their multi-part installation That Metal Voice Quavers (Already on Peaks, the Green Gleams) (2025) addresses the exploitation of natural resources and its effects on landscapes and societies. At the centre of the narrative is the fictional mineral fimbulite, derived from one of the end-time catastrophes of Norse mythology – an ice age with three harsh winters. It is mined under questionable conditions in order to be fed into the capitalist cycle. The extraction of the mineral not only changes the landscape, perception and memories but also leaves behind an environment in which familiar rhythms and structures no longer apply.

The installation combines two multi-channel sound compositions with ceramic sculptures. The metallic surfaces of the objects made of black and red clay are reminiscent of mineral structures embedded in rock. Arranged in stacked formations, they provide a kind of orientation point within a fragmented, morphed landscape. The sonic dimension of the work picks up on the concept of acoustic ecology: using sound as a means of making places, landscapes and their transformations perceptible to the senses. The soundscape creates an atmosphere that oscillates between the familiar and the uncanny. It is complemented by fictional interviews in which varying perspectives make the imaginary world in which fimbulite is being mined tangible. At the same time, the current ecological crisis becomes unmistakably recognizable as a reality that is deeply inscribed in our social and economic structures.

Rare earths – which are contained in virtually all technical devices – form the basis of the digital age. At the same time, their extraction results in significant environmental impacts, often rendering entire areas uninhabitable. Climatic changes and the direct exploitation of natural resources both act as triggers for migration. At the same time, the ongoing trade in goods and raw materials is part of the transaction network in which we, as members of capitalist society, inevitably find ourselves involved without moving our physical bodies. The installation draws attention to this new form of ecological destruction and the underlying global power structures and makes the associated invisible processes audible. It raises the question of how speculative visions of the future can possibly influence our thoughts and actions in the present.

Eliška Konečná is concerned with universal questions of existence, morality and desire. Her textile bas-reliefs are imbued with a meditative, dreamlike atmosphere. The velvety textures of the soft material conjure a sense of intimacy and security; the depicted figures embody archetypal images of femininity.

The triptych Thirst (2023) centres on basic human bodily needs – eating, sleeping, washing – and explores their deeper meaning, beyond the mere satisfaction of physiological necessities. Besides conveying notions of connectedness with nature and its vitality, the three bas-reliefs display a critical reflection on what is considered fragile and what is deemed as strong, on human dominance and the delicate nuances of care. While their curvy bodies exist as an evident expression of their desire, they are in equal measure subjected to punishment.

In The Great Sleep, a figure offers milk to a seemingly dying bird: a gesture balancing on the fine line between help and unintentional harm. Some sleeping figures appear enraptured and indifferent, while others observe the scene in a mode of curious detachment. InThe Great Bath, the bodies – washing themselves in an alleged search for forgiveness – juxtapose pain and guilt, resignation and acceptance. The Great Feast, featuring the image of a banquet, tops off such ambiguities: it tells of affection and rejection in a cyclical procedure harbouring sensuality and control alike.

Water plays a pivotal role in Eliška Konečná’s use of symbols. As a physical mass, it acts as a barrier which at the same time remains permeable. A single drop becomes a carrier of narrative meaning: all depending on the context, it may be a tear, blood, milk or semen. The works thus move between mythology and earthly experience, between the real world and inner, almost archetypal feelings. Thirstis a poetic, multi-layered reflection on human existence, longings and ambivalences. It shows that even the most basic actions are not simply about subsistence but often are also an expression of complex power relations, emotional struggles and deeply rooted social structures.

Teresa Solar Abboud’s sculptures visualize the abstractness of time: they evoke associations of prehistoric life forms and, at the same time, they are fiction and simulation. As organic compositions, they are inspired by natural history, ecology and anatomy.

The expansive installation Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark) (2023) presented here consists of five kayaks modelled after the shapes of human bones. The sculptures are reminiscent of a dismembered skeleton; they relate the structure supporting the human body – thus enabling it to move – to one of the most traditional means of transportation. Teresa Solar Abboud sees the human body as a porous, constantly changing system. The works on display are named after the osteoclast – a cell responsible for the breakdown and renewal of bone tissue. Thus, they allude to key processes of the body: growth, transformation and decay.

Inspired by a bone flute, the oldest musical instrument known, parallels arise between the human breath – capable of producing sound – and the wind that moves boats across the ocean. In contrast to the enormous cargo ships built and docked in shipyards, Teresa Solar Abboud’s kayaks place the human body at sea level, thus emphasizing its vulnerability in the face of the forces of nature. The bright orange colour of the boats hint at life jackets, which are essential for survival in emergencies at sea. Osteoclastwas originally created for the Liverpool Biennial in 2021, making reference to the history of slave trade connected to the city’s port. Thus, the sculptures establish a link between the fates of enslaved persons in the 17th century and the danger to life which refugees undergo today in order to cross oceans.

Teresa Solar Abboud’s work spans an arc from prehistory to the present, showing that migration – both individual and collective – represents a constant in human history. The dissolution of linear concepts of time, the question of how discourses shape our perception and the reference to pressing social challenges are at the core of this artistic exploration, opening up space for reflection on migration, processes of transformation and the inextricable interconnection of people, nature, history, the present and the future.