Impact of EMBracing the Ocean Projects
Artists-in-Residence (2023 - 2024)
Sonia Levy - We Marry You, O Sea
Sonia Levy is a research-led visual artist whose practice considers shifting modes of engagement with more-than-human worlds. Her work operates at the confluence of knowledge practices to interrogate expansionist and extractivist logics. Sonia's EMBracing the Ocean project engaged with the Venetian Lagoon "from below" with the aim to bring attention to the city's submerged, life-giving and altered bio-geomorphological processes. Sonia has developed a film in collaboration with local marine scientists from Stazione Idrobiologica Umberto D'Ancona, University of Padova, which was exhibited and used to inspire action to protect the lagoon during participatory workshops with local stakeholders.
Download the impact report for We Marry You, O Sea.
Studio ThinkingHand - Deep Time
Studio ThinkingHand is an art duo formed by Rhoda Ting and Mikkel Dahlin Bojesen. Their works focus on methods of listening, relating and co-creating with other than human species, such as fungi, bacteria and ecosystems. During their residency, Rhoda and Mikkel worked with Ocean floor sediments in collaboration with Professor Giuliana Panieri and other scientists from the Department of Geosciences at the Arctic University of Norway, to create glass cores as an archive of organic and geological matter, making visible life that existed over time.
Download the impact report for Deep Time.
Artists-in-Residence (2022 - 2023)
Michael Begg - Sounding the Ice Factory
Michael Begg is an award winning experimental composer and sound artist. As an EMBracing the Ocean resident artist, Michael turned his attention to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica and developed a series of new musical compositions 'Sounding the ice factory' that addresses the formation and purpose of openings in sea ice cover (coastal polynya) and the role of the thermocline in relation to the health of ice shelves. You can find out more about his project here.
Download the impact report for Sounding the Ice Factory.
Emily Lartillot - Of Roots and Sea
Emily Lartillot is a dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer, who founded the Steps For A Change company. This company brings together young dancers aged 7-17 to create and present dance performances about the environment and biodiversity in close collaboration with scientists. For the EMBracing the Ocean residency, Emily worked together with scientist Yunne-Jai Shin to develop a new choreography 'Of roots and sea' focused on mangroves as major socio-ecological systems for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The choreography was premiered by a group of 15 youth dancers from the Steps for Change dance company at the 7th edition of the University of the Earth at UNESCO. You can find out more about this project and watch the performance here.
Download the impact report for Of Roots and Sea.
Lera Litvinova - Under the Surface
Lera Litvinova is a Ukrainian visual artist and art curator, who EMB supported with an additional EMBracing the Ocean grant in 2022-2023 as support to Ukraine during the crisis. As an EMBracing the Ocean artist, Lera created new ceramic art pieces accompanied by text and video, developed in collaboration and consultation with various scientists from the Black Sea area and NGOs. The pieces focus on personifying the Black Sea and its underwater inhabitants, raising questions on investigating the scale of impacts on the Black Sea of Russian military aggression, and how to rebuild ecosystem health, reduce pollution and enable sustainable development in post-war conditions. You can find out more about her project here.