Vibrating bodies of water

The exhibition vibrating bodies of water by the ‘Planetary Spaces’ fellow Juan Pacheco Bejarano (artist & scholar) was showcased at Neuer Kunstverein Giessen to an exciting audience in the evening of November 10, 2023. The audio-visual installation emerged complementary to Pacheco Bejarano’s fellowship at the Panel and his three-day wet workshop. It invited visitors to experience water as a planetary space through deep listening, offering a melodic and imaginative path to heal our relationship with the deep sea. Pacheco Bejarano explored sound as a medium to reimagine how we relate to the forms of life and the flows of energy that thrive on the ocean floor. From corals and microplastics, to deep-sea mining and global warming, the installation asked: How can we reimagine our relationship to the ocean floor, and what can it teach us about our chances for survival?

The images and sounds that composed the exhibition were recorded by Pacheco Bejarano at the sites visited by the workshop: the Lahnfenster Hessen and the Lahn River, the Ocean2100 aquarium of JLU’s Systematics & Biodiversity Lab (a global change simulator to study coral reefs), the Bergwerkswald and Schwanenteich ponds, and the indoor pool of the Giessener Bäder. The sounds were recorded with a hydrophone, an underwater microphone built by Pacheco Bejarano with the support of MAGIE - Makerspace Giessen.

The highlight of the exhibition was Pacheco Bejarano taking the audience on a form of guided meditation session where the audience was asked to imagine themselves as a coral that has swallowed a piece of microplastic which has now lodged in the coral’s heart. The empathetic act of being and feeling a coral did a deep delving into the heart of the issues Pacheco Bejarano addressed throughout his workshop. The installation was also activated by a live performance, where Pacheco Bejarano played his own version of an Ocean Harp creating a reverberating, ethereal music.