Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen
Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen, Paleness, 2022. View at Castel Gardena, Selva Gardena. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
The work of Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen articulates itself through objects, installations and films, undergirded by rigorous and long-term research processes, in order to investigate contemporary processes of production as cultural, personal and political practices.
Paleness: a sudden loss of composure, a physical manifestation of anxiety, or fear. Did the mountains pale as the sea receded, giving way to the landscape we perceive today? Do we still recognise ancient water creatures’ bodies in the shapes of the mountains, the minerals in their bones now petrified into landscape? Pale blue liquid flows down through the town’s fountains and into the grounds: a cloudy, bright blue bloodlike liquid that connects mountain, sea, human and animal bodies, myth, medicine, prehistoric and capitalist ecologies. A chalky bright Phthalo Blue; the milk of a mountain, or perhaps the toxic remains of a chemical process? The copper blood of an alien species tinting the paleness of rock, as blood rushes away from the skin towards the heart? Paleness speaks of the Dolomite’s prehistoric, oceanic past – as well as a milkyblue blood that, unbeknownst to most, upholds the pharmaceutical-industrial complex.
An ancient, alien creature haunts the work. In the exhibition halls of the Museum of Natural History in Bolzano rest live specimens of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), an animal that predates the dinosaurs. In many ways considered a “living fossil”, the horseshoe crab has witnessed the rise and fall of millions of other species across deep time. Yet their relevance in contemporary life is ubiquitous: the horseshoe crab is systematically extracted from its natural environment by the pharmaceutical industry, which uses its distinctly blue blood, rich in copper, as a biosensor to individuate bacteria and develop vaccines. This creature, which survived ice ages, four extinctions and a meteorite, was recently added to the IUCN’s Threatened Species list in the hope of surviving Big Pharma.
Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen, Paleness, 2022. View at Castel Gardena, Selva Gardena. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
Revital Cohen & Tuur Van Balen
Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen, Paleness, 2022. View at Castel Gardena, Selva Gardena. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo
The work of Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen articulates itself through objects, installations and films, undergirded by rigorous and long-term research processes, in order to investigate contemporary processes of production as cultural, personal and political practices.
Paleness: a sudden loss of composure, a physical manifestation of anxiety, or fear. Did the mountains pale as the sea receded, giving way to the landscape we perceive today? Do we still recognise ancient water creatures’ bodies in the shapes of the mountains, the minerals in their bones now petrified into landscape? Pale blue liquid flows down through the town’s fountains and into the grounds: a cloudy, bright blue bloodlike liquid that connects mountain, sea, human and animal bodies, myth, medicine, prehistoric and capitalist ecologies. A chalky bright Phthalo Blue; the milk of a mountain, or perhaps the toxic remains of a chemical process? The copper blood of an alien species tinting the paleness of rock, as blood rushes away from the skin towards the heart? Paleness speaks of the Dolomite’s prehistoric, oceanic past – as well as a milkyblue blood that, unbeknownst to most, upholds the pharmaceutical-industrial complex.
An ancient, alien creature haunts the work. In the exhibition halls of the Museum of Natural History in Bolzano rest live specimens of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), an animal that predates the dinosaurs. In many ways considered a “living fossil”, the horseshoe crab has witnessed the rise and fall of millions of other species across deep time. Yet their relevance in contemporary life is ubiquitous: the horseshoe crab is systematically extracted from its natural environment by the pharmaceutical industry, which uses its distinctly blue blood, rich in copper, as a biosensor to individuate bacteria and develop vaccines. This creature, which survived ice ages, four extinctions and a meteorite, was recently added to the IUCN’s Threatened Species list in the hope of surviving Big Pharma.
Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen, Paleness, 2022. View at Castel Gardena, Selva Gardena. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina ∞. Ph. Tiberio Sorvillo