The Vanity of Vanities – 56th Venice Biennale

“When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest woods, the thickest and most interminable and, to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place,—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature“

Excerp from Walking, by Henry David Thoreau, May 1862

The Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity – A solo exhibition by Anne Katrine Senstad at El Magazen d’elle Arte, on the occasion of The 56th La Biennale di Venezia 2015. The exhibition presents Senstad’s practice in philosophical narratives and contemplations married with her practice in immersive and experiential installation art and the site specific conditions of memorials in her work since the 1990’s. The dual-chamber encompassing exhibition in the historic former gondola workshop located on the Trovaso canal, consist of audio-visual multi projections and suspended mirrored plexiglas installations of the video works The Swamp and The Vanity of Vanities, both with spatial sound compositions by acclaimed composer JG Thirlwell. In conjunction with Senstad’s solo exhibition, The Swamp was simultaneously presented at Safina Radio Projects, a United Arab Emirates Venice Biennale Collaterali Eventi Project organized by Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.

Excerpt from curators text: In The Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra writes: “I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance… I ‘saw’ cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I ‘saw’ the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I ‘heard’ its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshiped by the Hindus.”

Collaged still images from The Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity, 2013 by Anne Katrine Senstad. Sound by JG Thirlwell. Time: 6.27 min loop. Scale: 4:3, Stereo.

The Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity – excerpt from artist statement: We live in the era of vanity. By examining the systemic order of nature, here the oceanic, and interpreting the ecological implications of human modification and at-risk culture, the installation becomes a platform for discussions and raising awareness of contemporaneous issues surrounding ecological sustainability, marine health and the threat posed onto disappearing land, de-mooring the rationality of the anthropologist and assimilating the wild chaos inherent to nature, invoking dei ex machina as solution. In the mystic-philosophical school of Nikolai Fedorov, we are all responsible for the execution of the Common Task, a regulation of nature and resurrection of the infinite – yet we descend into the vain disillusion of human superiority. – Anne Katrine Senstad

The Swamp, 2014 by Anne Katrine Senstad, sound by JG Thirlwell.Time: 3.45 min loop. Scale: 16:9, Stereo.

The Swamp, 2014 by Anne Katrine Senstad, sound by JG Thirlwell. Time: 3.45 min loop. Scale: 16:9, Stereo.

The Swamp is an homage and a lyrical meditation on the culture, history, nature and anthropological complexities of the American south, where the swamp itself is the symbolic protagonist. Filmed in the swamps outside Baton Rouge in Louisiana, the video evokes the mystique, beauty and darkness of the swamps and the Mississippi delta. The swamp undermines the boundaries between death and life by asserting their tandem—and sometimes weirdly beautiful—coexistence, and opens up an unsettling space for a contemplation of lively death. Historically and psychologically the swamps of Louisiana represent a place of freedom. Slaves who managed to escape cotton and sugarcane plantations would hide and later establish communities, people known as Maroons; – the white colonial man feared enter. The Acadians displaced from French Canada would create settlements in the swamps, as did Native Americans such as the Choctaw, mixing blood with the Acadians and former slaves. A creation of new cultures developed which became the French creole and the Cajun. The sound of the Swamp is colored by amalgamation of blood and culture and the stories of death and hardship found in the Mississippi delta blues, old slave songs that carried on to be sung in prisons of the south, early Gospel, spirituals and the Cajun Zydeco music. The Mississippi Delta blues sound narrates the slow moving water, the heat and insects played on a haunting guitar with vocals of suffering, love, hate, freedom, religion and poverty. 

“In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp – The hunted Negro lay; He saw the fire of the midnight camp, And heard at times a horse’s tramp – And a bloodhound’s distant bay.”

The Slave in the Dismal Swamp, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1842 

Ecologically, Swamps are transitional areas, liminal spaces. They are neither land nor water. Swamps are actually among the most valuable ecosystems on Earth. They act like large sponges and reservoirs. As heavy rains cause flooding, swamps and other wetlands absorb excess water, moderating the effects of flooding. Swamps also protect coastal areas from storm surges that can wash away fragile coastline like the fast eroding coast and wetlands of Louisiana. Saltwater swamps and tidal salt marshes help anchor coastal soil and sand. In the United States, draining swamps was an accepted practice for agriculture and industrial development. Almost half of U.S. wetlands were destroyed before environmental protections were enacted during the 1970s. Europe lost at least 50 % of it’s wetlands and New Zealand has lost 90 percent over the past 150 years. It is now understood that swamps provide valuable ecological services including flood control, fish production, water purification, carbon storage, and vast wildlife habitat. The love for the ecology of the swamp and it’s representation of freedom can be found in Henry David Thoreau’s writing; “When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest woods, the thickest and most interminable and, to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place,—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength, the marrow, of Nature”. In Emily Dickinson’s poetry, swamps are viewed through the optics of love represented by flowers; “swamps pink with June”, and the symbol of nature as sensuality and the feminine; “Betrothed to Righteousness might be – An Ecstasy discreet”. She doubts the pleasures of virtuous ecstasy, and pious sensual pleasures experienced by a feminine “Nature” devouring feminine pink wildflowers, and seeks the total freedom of the feminine.

Installation view – The Swamp, 2014, by Anne Katrine Senstad – Multiprojection, semitransparent plexiglas, reflections, sound by JG Thirlwell. El Magazen d’elle Arte, 55th Venice Biennale, 2015

The Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity, 2013 by Anne Katrine Senstad – audio-visual installation with labyrinthian semi-transparent mirrors. 56th Venice Biennale.

The Vanity of Vanities All is Vanity, 2013 by Anne Katrine Senstad – audio-visual installation with labyrinthian semi-transparent mirrors. 56th Venice Biennale.

Organized by Associazione Culturale RO.SA.M. Curated by Dr Roberta Semeraro. In partnership with PNEK.org, Zhulong Gallery, MAAP, Kunstforum