In 1992 the Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro, running alongside the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), declared that June 8th would be recognized as Oceans Day. The day highlighted the importance of our oceans and raised awareness about their vital role in our lives and their conservation.
Sixteen years later, in 2008, the General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that June 8th would be formally designated as "World Oceans Day" by the United Nations. It was a significant moment that solidified the global recognition of this special day.
As the years passed, World Oceans Day evolved, covering a wide range of issues, from the implementation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to international shipping, maritime security, marine science and technology, marine biodiversity, sustainable development and climate change.
This year's theme for World Oceans Day is "Planet Ocean: Tides Are Changing" and invites all of us to contemplate a variety of concerns, in particular the connection between the climate crisis and the oceans. Additionally, it draws attention to the unprecedent levels of plastics and microplastics in the oceans.
The world produces indeed nearly 400 million tonnes of plastic annually, with an estimated 14 million tonnes finding their way into the ocean each year. Textiles are also a huge cause of plastic pollution in the oceans as more than one-third of all primary microplastics in our oceans come from synthetic clothing or other textiles. These statistics underscore the urgent need to address the environmental crisis.
World Oceans Day is therefore an occasion to act, but also to reflect on our relationship with the oceans and consider how we can contribute to their preservation. Art can play a significant role in exploring this connection.
At Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, in Madrid, Spain, for example, there is still the chance to see a contemplative work entitled "Of Whales" by award-winning artist and filmmaker Wu Tsang (until 11th June).
Originally commissioned for the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani, the real-time video installation is a meditation from the whale's perspective through a deep dive into an alternative oceanic cosmology.
Tsang is fascinated by sperm whales as they are the deepest diving mammals: they can dive to depths of over 2,000 meters and they can hold their breath for over an hour. In the director's research, whales become therefore a symbol of what lies beyond the human realm.
The inspiration for the work comes from the scene in Melville's Moby Dick in which, in a panic, Pip, the young cabin boy who replaces an injured crew member in Second Mate Stubb's whale boat, leaps into the water. Immersed in the depths of the sea, Pip encounters a mysterious underwater cosmos, but, once rescued, the other sailors think he has gone mad.
Melville writes: "Among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom and spoke it."
The work was created on the Unity gaming platform as a dynamically generated real-time video and sound installation, which envelops visitors in an oceanscape-cosmos for contemplation.
"Of Whales" forms part of a filmic trilogy that includes Tsang's feature-length adaptation of Moby Dick and a third part called "Extracts". The feature-length film is also on view at the Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Tsang's feature-length film takes the well-known maritime story of a captain's relentless pursuit of the legendary white whale and presents a fresh interpretation.
In this adaptation, Tsang delves into postcolonial, environmental and queer perspectives: the famous opening line "Call me Ishmael" is pronounced as the narrator's lover, Queequeg, leaves his bed to dress, while the ship's crew is a collective above the boundaries of gender and race, forming a diverse and inclusive community. By exploring themes like labor and desire, industrialism and extractivism, the film offers a rich and multi-dimensional cinematic portrayal of the 1851 allegorical novel, that adds new layers of meaning to this timeless tale.
The narrative is interwoven with extracts by the Sub-Sub-Librarian, a character played by acclaimed poet Fred Moten, and tackles the novel's subterranean currents, encountering the resistance of the ship's hydrarchy, or organizational structure, and collectives of "mariners, renegades, and castaways," as described by historian CLR James.
"I felt unusually free in my approach to Moby Dick because it is such a ubiquitous book that has been adapted so many countless times, there was no pressure to be original -which in the end gave us a lot of space to play and be inventive," director Wu Tsang explains in a press release.
"It's a story that is so well known, but also unknown. The book is so juicy and saturated with problems and reflections of its time - but also of our present."
The film was shot entirely on a sound-stage combining silent-era filmmaking techniques with Virtual Production, a virtual reality game engine projecting surreal ocean environments.
The film features original orchestral music composed by Caroline Shaw and Andrew Yee with Asma Maroof, and has also got a fashion twist about: fashion designer Telfar Clemens in collaboration with stylist and fashion consultant Kyle Luu designed the costumes that combine traditional late 19th-century marine attire with a gender nonconforming, nightlife-inspired flair.
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