LAS Art Foundation announced a major new commission by artist, performer and writer Josèfa Ntjam.
Josèfa Ntjam, swell of spæc(i)es, 2024. Film render. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist; LAS Art Foundation; Galerie Poggi, Paris; and NıCOLETTı, London © ADAGP, Paris, 2024
The itinerant foundation’s first project to be presented outside of Berlin, ‘swell of spæc(i)es’, will be a Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The installation will take place in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia courtyard, in a purpose-built pavilion. It will be accompanied by an interactive element at Palazzina Canonica – CNR ISMAR (Istituto di Scienze Marine).
‘swell of spæc(i)es’ will unfold a new creation myth shaped by ancient and emergent ways of conceiving the universe. Within this imagination, plankton is a point of convergence between the deep ocean and outer space, biological and mythical realms, possible pasts and alternative futures. Visitors to the installation will encounter an otherworldly environment populated by sonic sculptures and a new film scored by Fatima al Qadiri, which will be displayed on a curved LED wall.
In recent years, Ntjam’s practice has explored the political and utopian dimensions of oceans, receptacles of many stories of domination – from slavery and colonisation to capitalism and environmental and humanitarian crises – but also of resistance, emancipation and creation. In Venice, she will focus on plankton as an agent of alchemical transformation in recounting the story of Amma, a Dogon deity that created the stars by launching pellets of the earth into the sky, and Nommos, the first creatures to live underwater. Ntjam draws parallels between the Dogon cosmogony and a recent discovery which found limestone (primarily formed through the fossilisation of plankton, coral and other marine organisms) in the debris of a former planet orbiting a white dwarf. Her film blends 3D animation and aquarium footage into a circular narrative of creation, transformation and resurgence. It features a cast of interspecies characters synthesised using AI and other digital tools, including 3D models of marine life, scans of West African statues held in museum collections and photographs witnessing decolonial independence movements. These characters embed histories and memories subject to hegemonic erasure within marine and cosmic landscapes, reflecting influences from electronic music duo Drexciya, whose mythology tells of an underwater population born from the wrecks of the Atlantic human trade, and Sun Ra, who envisioned Saturn as a host planet for Afro-diasporic people.
Ntjam’s sonic sculptures are made from innovative materials such as bio-sourced resin and reishi mycelium. A membrane-like form will emerge from the ground, diffusing electroacoustic frequencies, while non-linear narrative fragments will emanate from two jellyfish ‘sound showers’. Spanning multiple cosmo-geographies and knowledge systems, the installation will shape a poetics of alterity.
Designed by UNA / UNLESS architecture studio, the pavilion housing Ntjam’s work will be a triangular purple-blue prism that appears to have fallen from outer space into the Accademia di Belle Arti’s courtyard. The curved LED wall will subtly interlock with the Renaissance-era building and, with its placement, evoke the absence of a 16th-century church by Sansovino once located on site. Its striking geometry will stand in contrast to the organic forms emerging within.
Research is at the core of LAS commissions, and in developing the project, Ntjam has held exchanges with plankton scientists at Cardiff University, Wales, and Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), Venice. At ISMAR’s Palazzina Canonica, she will present an interactive accompaniment to the project, asking audiences to join her process of carrying forward ancestral histories. An AI-based interface will allow visitors to generate their hybrid plankton species, merging Ntjam’s dataset with photographs of plankton produced by ISMAR’s flow cytometer, a monitoring instrument located 16 kilometres offshore, which uses AI to classify organisms found in water samples. The audience-generated creatures will inhabit a virtual ecosystem on-site.
Josèfa Ntjam: ‘swell of spæc(i)es’ will be complemented by public and educational programmes organised by Ocean Space, ISMAR and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. The exhibition will be on view from the 20th of April until the 24th of November, 2024. For more information, please visit LAS Art Foundation.
