Ursula Biemann

My field work has taken me to remote locations from the Amazon to the Arctic where I have physically experienced sites of environmental devastation that entail deep impacts on all forms of life. The ecological crisis that has been ravaging the planet for decades, is equally threatening to humanity but barely received the same attention as the current pandemic. It is only when the hazard hits home, when it infiltrates our own bodies, that our response switches to emergency mode. 

On a field-trip to the Arctic, I came to understand that these micro and macro worlds are intimately interconnected. With the melting of the polar ice caps, masses of microorganisms that have been trapped in the ice sheets for longer than human time are now flowing into the Oceans. The meltwater bears new bacterial and genetic material that the world hasn't seen. Some of these organisms are 400,000 years old and still alive. Released from the deep-freeze, they begin to assemble genetic futures. If we are to keep pace with the harsh transformations that we are imposing on our living environment, humans too will have to mutate. Whether we succeed in this accelerated form of evolution is a speculative question. The science-fictional figures I create in my videos make an effort to attune to the changing conditions by trying to live underwater and fuse with the swarming Sea, by turning into divers, videographers and metaphysicians. And by creating technologies to enter in contact with the vocal expressions of the living Ocean.