WU TSANG. OF WHALES

From 21st February to 11st June, 2023

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

By WAC | 18 FEB 2023

TBA21 presents Of Whales, a solo exhibition by the artist Wu Tsang's research on Herman Melville's literary classic Moby Dick. It is curated by Soledad Gutiérrez.

The project includes the homonymous work Of Whales, presented last year at the 59th Venice Biennale. It is a video installation that evokes a psychedelic oceanic environment generated from what expanded reality technologies make possible. On this occasion, however, the format is that of a site-specific installation of an immersive nature that dialogues with the architecture of the museum.

The piece is conceived through the eyes of both the cetacean and the crew of sailors who sail the seas aboard the whaler Pequod. This complex work places Melville's story in the context of mid-19th century maritime history, the transatlantic birth of modern capitalism and the social conflicts of the time. The vastness of the ocean becomes a symbol of the unknown; the reflections point to the presence of oblique perspectives and challenge the idea that any point of view is singular or linear.

In the words of the curator: "This exhibition is an invitation to experience an alternate cosmology constructed from one of the mythical narratives of our time, and to experience it through the eyes of the whale. It is an exploration of how a work of art can inhabit critical thought and how, from this experimentation, the public programmes that are generated can contribute to the transformation of cultural institutions into public spaces".

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