While artists Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano share a life together, the two rarely unite their practices. The two Berlin-based artists fuse their artistic visions in ‘Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas’, an installation co-commissioned by TBA21–Academy and Audemars Piguet Contemporary. Housed within the San Lorenzo Church in Venice, Italy, the exhibition takes the form of an evolving ecosystem comprising 30 large-scale sculptures of hybrid aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial creatures.
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The creatures within the ecosystem take on an otherworldly tone, blending art with mythology, sci-fi, and history; ranging in size, none of them are realistic to the world we inhabit. Each is in a constant state of evolution, with a combination of features designed for survival underwater, on land, and in the sky. Taking form in silver- and bronze-toned metal, their skins reflect the sunlight onto the church’s walls, ceilings, and floors. Each creature serves double duty as a musical instrument, producing sounds from music boxes and other DIY techniques. However, it’s human interaction that gives them their voice — together, they attempt a melody inspired by the traditional Spanish song Ay mi pescadito.
Holding court above the ethereal beings is an egg-shaped moon that appears to be rendered in the same materiality as the church walls. Reflecting the remnants of the San Lorenzo Church, its materiality symbolises how everything can be reused and transformed as part of the cyclical nature of our world; representing possibilities to reimagine alternative future forms of life, transformation, and parenthood.
“The work blurs our binary sense of the world,” explain artists Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano in a statement. “An egg-shaped moon, aquatic creatures becoming terrestrial and aerial, an orchestra playing a symphony that emerges from the waters and syncs with the moon cycles; these and more stories guide our show at Ocean Space. The installation echoes a children’s song, where young fish go to school at the bottom of the sea on order to study forms of resistance.”
The co-commission is a result of TBA21–Academy and Audemars Piguet Contemporary’s shared desire to support artists in research and artistic production, and in turn, encourage dialogue and imaginative thinking for a global audience.
“It has been an honour to collaborate with artists Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano on this immersive and interactive installation,” says Audrey Teichmann, art curator at Audemars Piguet Contemporary. “Together they approach themes of transformation and belonging, embracing the notion that when ‘nothing is wasted, everything is transformed’.”
Words by AR Staff
