Venice highlighted in Ocean exhibition
Combined impacts of sea-level rise, intensification of maritime transport, depletion of coastal ecosystems and deep-sea mining are the theme of a new exhibition planned for the Italian city of Venice which aims to change the dialogue about ocean environments.
A projected image of Venice in the year 2050 if the global community lives up to the 2016 Paris Agreement forms part of the exhibition Oceans in Transformation, opening in the spring.
There are predictions that combined sea level rise and land subsidence will flood the city built on 118 small islands entirely by the year 2100.
Effects of over-fishing, bottom trawling, oil exploration and extraction, migration, changing ocean circulations, militarisation and melting ice are also traced by the research project Territorial Agency, which is hosting the exhibition.
Bathymetry and fishing data from the “black Atlantic”, as in mid-Atlantic; the impact of shipping activity and oil licensing; and a multi-beam sonar sounding of Reykjanes Ridge in the Atlantic are among images commissioned for the project.
It also draws on multi-beam sonar data for a view of the Pacific floor, off the coast of Hawaii.
Other images include scenarios of sea-level rise overlaid on the rapid depletion of the coastal ecosystems of the Mississippi delta in the USA, the impact of rapid urbanisation in China on the Yangtze River plume near Shanghai, and fishing and trans-shipment data near the Nazca-Desventuradas marine park off the coast of Chile.
Territorial Agency was founded by Ann-Sofi Ronnskog and John Palmesino as an independent organisation. It says it combines “architecture, spatial analysis, advocacy and action” to influence chance in the inhabited environment.
The project was informed and “catalysed” by sea-level rise, as the most visible sign of climate change, but investigates the changes in world oceans during the current geological era known as the anthropocene.
It assesses latest scientific knowledge, based on a consensus that fewer than 20% of ocean floors have been mapped, to emphasise the critical role of oceans in the planet’s survival.
The organisers of Oceans in Transformation will host parallel discussions with key players in environmental conversations and research, including scientists, artists, governmental and society groups, policymakers and conservationists.
Oceans in Transformation opens at the Ocean Space venue in Venice on March 22, 2020
