reflects on Stockholm’s ever changing urban landscapes and on the complex relationships between man-made, technology and nature. Flowing Grounds focuses on the harbor and the water as a vibrant system with its own temporality where all agents have to adapt to different laws and habitats.
The site specific audio visual installation consists of a 2-channel video, stereo audio with speakers, tactile transducers and controlled signal lights. A container is transformed into a migration vessel where the audience experiences the journey of Stockholm’s main water way from the lake Mälaren to the Baltic Sea in a day and night cycle. At Galleri Frihamnstorget the installation was presented in a sea container that has seen 7 seas for 40 years.
The artwork distills researched material and aquatic stories collected while following Stockholm’s main water stream routes: from Lake Mälaren to where the sea traffic passes through the Baltic Sea and towards foreign borders. Playing with the dichotomy of salt and fresh water, southern and northern river streams, and the low and high water levels, the artist builds a symbolic water lock between the virtual and analog realities. Relating to the Slussen water lock construction site.
The underwater sound recordings used in the installation make it possible to hear and feel acoustic features of both natural and artificial inhabitants, which are normally imperceivable through human ears. The sonic material becomes an organic continuation of human ears in a positive transhumanistic dimension. The marine signal lights placed in the sea container navigate audiences through the exhibition and the routes of artistic reflections.
Galleri Frihamnstorget, Stockholm, 2022
Supported by: Stroom Den Haag, Stockholm University, Mondriaan Fund
Concept, programming, composition, hardware development: Gabey Tjon a Tham
Curator: Sona Stepanyan
Unity 3D technical support: Rob Bothof
Technical production support: Ljubomir Popovic
Thanks to: Roberto Bigolin, Zeno van den Broek, David Lopez Cotarelo, Mark Ijzerman, Isabelle Ribe, Ulrika Sparre
