.webp)
Retrouvez ici les textes et traductions des panneaux signalétiques du Festival Art Explora.
Le Festival art explora
Le Festival Art Explora est un festival culturel nomade ouvert à tous. Voyageant à bord du premier bateau-musée au monde, il déploie à chaque escale un parcours d’expositions et une programmation qui explorent et mettent à l’honneur les arts et les cultures de la Méditerranée.
Créé par la fondation reconnue d’utilité publique Art Explora, dont la mission est de partager les arts et la culture avec le plus grand nombre, le Festival Art Explora est une véritable odyssée à la rencontre des arts et des publics qui sillonnera la Méditerranée pendant 2 ans.
À chaque étape de son voyage — 15 pays au total —, le festival entend tisser des liens forts avec celles et ceux qui font vivre la création autour du bassin méditerranéen. Artistes, commissaires d’exposition, organisations culturelles et publics sont invités à partager la richesse artistique et culturelle de leur région, composant ainsi une vision cosmopolite et contemporaine de la Méditerranée.
La Fondation art explorA
Art Explora est une fondation internationale reconnue d’utilité publique dont le but est de favoriser le partage de la culture avec le plus grand nombre en renouvelant le dialogue entre les arts et les publics à l’échelle locale, nationale et internationale.
Convaincue que la mobilité et le numérique permettent de repousser les limites de l’imagination, la Fondation Art Explora encourage de nouvelles formes d’accès et d’engagement des publics.
Avec les artistes, les organisations culturelles et les acteurs de terrain, nous explorons la création et créons des expériences culturelles inoubliables.
Demandez le programme
Le Festival Art Explora présente un parcours d’expositions et des évènements répartis entre le bateau-musée, à quai dans les pavillons et l’Agora, et dans toute la ville de Marseille.
À BORD : Expériences immersives
- Présente : Une exposition immersive autour des figures féminines dans les civilisations méditerranéennes à travers des collections du Louvre, dans le cadre d'une collaboration exceptionnelle avec le musée.
- Voyage audio en Méditerranée : Explorez les richesses de la Méditerranée à travers une odyssée audio, et découvrez de nouveaux paysages sonores, à la fois réels et imaginaires, réalisée par Ircam x Ircam Amplify.
SUR LE QUAI
- Festival : Chaque jour, un programme varié de performances, de concerts, de spectacles de danse, de projections de films, d'expériences culinaires, de lectures et de conférences est proposé à tous les publics.
- Ateliers : Des ateliers participatifs sensibilisent aux défis environnementaux et sociaux en Méditerranée.
Le bateau-musée
Le premier bateau musée au monde !
Vous montez à bord du premier bateau musée au monde ! Mesurant 47 mètres de long et 55 mètres de haut, il peut accueillir jusqu'à 2 000 personnes à bord chaque jour ! Conçu par Axel de Beaufort et Guillaume Verdier, sa construction sur le site de Perini Navi en Italie a nécessité 3 ans de travail, impliquant de nombreux métiers : soudeurs, menuisiers, électriciens, peintres et bien d'autres.
• Longueur totale : 47 m
• Largeur : 18 m
• Tirant d'eau : 3,50 m
• Franc-bord : 3,70 m
• Tirant d'air : 55 m
• Déplacement : 370 tonnes
• Voiles : Plus de 1 800 mètres carrés au total
• 9 membres d'équipage
• Pavillon : Français
• Classification : Bureau Veritas
L'ITINÉRAIRE DU FESTIVAL ART EXPLORA
Votre odyssée culturelle continue !
Suivez le parcours du festival et de son bateau musée à travers la Méditerranée !
@artexplorafestival
Consultez nos ressources et partagez vos expériences dans le carnet de bord du festival !
Take a moment to pause, recharge, and be inspired in this welcoming and comfortable space, open to all visitors regardless of their age.
The space, designed as a place for discussions, readings, and encounters, is centered around the emblematic work of the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto: a mirrored table shaped like the Mediterranean basin, surrounded by chairs from the countries bordering this sea. Echoing the concept of hospitality, central to the Mediterranean, this piece invites you to take a seat around the table and participate in reflection workshops led by artists or associations, engage in discussions on topics related to the artistic programme, attend public reading sessions, or enjoy the books and resources available for your use.
Love Difference – Mar Mediterraneo, Michelangelo Pistoletto
2003 - 2005
Mirror and wood, chairs from various Mediterranean countries
Courtesy of the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA
This mirrored table in the shape of the Mediterranean basin, surrounded by chairs from the countries bordering this sea, is the symbol of Love Difference, an artistic movement for a trans-Mediterranean political policy, first presented at the Venice Biennale in 2003.
The movement, as the Michelangelo Pistoletto stated, “associates the universality of art with the idea of political transnationality and focuses its activity in the Mediterranean region because the issues of the global society are reflected there. Uniformity and difference are the two antagonistic terms that represent the highest conflictual tension in today’s planetary reality. A policy that leads to "loving differences" is vital for the development of new perspectives across the entire social structure.”
Check all the contents related to the festival on the logbook !
RESSOURCES EDUCATIVES
PRÉPAREZ VOTRE VOYAGE CULTUREL !
Art Explora, c’est aussi une offre pédagogique à découvrir avant, pendant et après le festival, en ligne via notre portail de ressources, et sur place grâce à nos ateliers créatifs. Fruit d’un travail collectif avec les associations et les institutions locales, nationales et internationales, l’offre de médiation Art Explora met en valeur la diversité des regards pour créer des ressources uniques et permettre à tous de découvrir l’art autrement.
Fruit d’un travail collectif avec les associations et les institutions locales, nationales et internationales, l’offre de médiation Art Explora met en valeur la diversité des regards pour créer des ressources uniques et permettre à tous de découvrir l’art autrement.
Afin de profiter pleinement du festival et de sa programmation artistique, rendez-vous sur notre site internet ou flashez le QR code ci-contre pour découvrir notre bibliothèque de contenus dédiés. Ceux-ci vous aideront à préparer votre visite et vos ateliers, ou simplement à enrichir vos connaissances sur l’art et la Méditerranée. Des ressources pédagogiques à destination des enseignants sont également disponibles pour préparer et prolonger la visite avec leurs classes.
NOTRE AMBITION
UNE INITIATIVE D’ART EXPLORA
Art Explora est une fondation internationale reconnue d’utilité publique qui favorise le partage des arts et de la culture avec le plus grand nombre et renouvelle le dialogue entre les arts et les publics à l’échelle locale, nationale et internationale. Convaincue que la mobilité et le numérique permettent de repousser les limites de l’imagination, la fondation Art Explora encourage de nouvelles formes d’accès et d’engagement des publics. Avec les artistes, les organisations culturelles et les acteurs de terrain, nous explorons la création contemporaine sous toutes ses formes et créons des expériences culturelles inoubliables.
ART EXPLORA ACADEMY
Prolongez votre visite avec une app 100% gratuite pour découvrir l’histoire de l’art comme vous ne l’avez jamais vue!
Explorez notre parcours sur les Femmes dans l’Art en Méditerranée et découvrez tous nos contenus podcasts et vidéos pour satisfaire votre soif de culture.
A découvrir sur Art Explora Academy
VOYAGE SONORE EN MÉDITERRANÉE
Voyagez par les oreilles, naviguez par le son, pour vous immerger dans la richesse et la diversité de la Méditerranée. Depuis le pont du bateau-musée, vous allez traverser ce carrefour de langues, de pratiques culturelles et cultuelles, parcourir aussi bien les espaces urbains que naturels, le patrimoine sonore et vivant. Bon voyage sonore en Méditerranée !
Une expérience sonore conçue et réalisée par Ircam et Ircam amplify pour le festival Art Explora.
SCÈNE 1 MER
Le Pradet,France - Vagues sur les rochers d’une digue de pierre ;
Solliès-Toucas, France - Chantsdes cigales dans la chaleur d’août ;
Hyères, France - Plage del’Almanarre - Enfants et adultes jouant sur la plage;
Le Pradet, France - Cliquetisdes filins au vent, sur les mâts des voiliers ;
Santorin, Grèce - Vagues deloin, sur la plage
Prises de son : Romain Barthelemy (France), Libby Green and Marcel Gnauk (Grèce)
SCÈNE 2 DIALOGUES MÉDITERRANÉENS, LES MARCHÉS
Lisbonne,Portugal - cris des marchands tziganes du marché Feira do Relógio ;
Tunis, Tunisie - voix du bazaarde la Medina;
Tel Aviv, Israël - cris desmarchands du marché Carmel ;
Istanbul, Turquie - cris desmarchands du marché Tarihi Salı Pazarı;
Palerme, Italie - voix de laVucciria;
Prises de son : RomainBarthelemy (Italie), Evan Buist (Maroc) Benjamin Gale (Tunisie), Libby Greenand Marcel Gnauk (Portugal, Turquie), Lukáš Tvrdoň (Israël)
SCÈNE 3 CHANTER, CRIER, FRAPPER, LE BRUIT DES FOULES
Lisbonne,Portugal - Manifestation contre le changement climatique - Friday for change ;
Tanger, Maroc - Rassemblementde scouts marocains sur la Place du Grand Socco ;
Pays basque, Espagne -Manifestation pour la libération d’un membre de l’ETA ;
Prises de son : Romain Barthelemy (Maroc),Libby Green and Marcel Gnauk (Portugal),Félix Blume (Espagne)
SCÈNE 4 PETITE MUSIQUE DE NUIT
Chypre -steliosilchuk / x.ypno, 2021, Πέλαγος, ΕΞΩΣΤ [CD + Digital Album], Limassol :Moneda. ;
En arrière-plan - Tunis,Tunisie - grillons et vagues sur le bord de mer, chant d’un coq;
Prises de son : Benjamin Gale (Tunisie)
SCÈNE 5 «IL Y A DE QUOI TE FAIRE CONFIANCE»
Au large,mer Méditerranée - chant improvisé par des femmes réfugiées secourues parl’Ocean Viking + prises de mer, d’hydrophones;
Prises deson : Hippolyte, pour l’association SOS Méditerranée, Romain Barthelemy, FelixBlume & Tim Prebble (sons d’eau et vent)
SCÈNE 6 MUSIQUES DE LA MER
Zadar,Croatie - orgues marines, complainte jouée par les vagues s’engouffrant dansles tuyaux d’orgues ;
Espagne - extrait d’un chantgalicien traditionnel par Carmen Amigo Mourelle ;
Tanger, Maroc - le son desterrasses des restaurants de Tanger Boulevar ;
Tanger, Maroc - rassemblementautour d’un groupe de musiciens de rue, place du Grand Socco ;
Prises de son : Romain Barthelemy (Maroc),Libby Green and Marcel Gnauk (Croatie), Félix Blume (Espagne)
SCÈNE 7 KLAXONS, INSTRUMENTS DES RUES
Beyrouth,Liban - coups de klaxons, ambiance de rue ;
Maroc - coups de klaxons ;
Istanbul, Turquie - sirènes etklaxons en continu pour les commémorations en l’honneur d’Atatürk ;
Venise, Italie - les orgues del’Eglise Sant’Elena, cadence de fin et résonance ;
Arrière-plan - Malaga, Espagne- un drone électrique dans un tunnel, à l’approche de l’aéroport ;
Prises de son : Romain Barthelemy(Italie, Espagne), Evan Buist (Maroc), Libby Green and Marcel Gnauk (Turquie),Robert Kubicki (Liban)
SCÈNE 8 LE SON DES RELIGIONS
Nicosie,Chypre - Deux Adhan de la mosquée Selimiye ;
Jerusalem, Israel - Un groupede prière dans une synagogue de la vieille ville ;
Ħaż-Żabbar, Malte - différentescloches de l’Église de la paroisse Zabbar;
Prises de son : Libby Green andMarcel Gnauk (Chypre, Malte), sen6 (Israël)
SCÈNE 9 CLOCHETTES DU PAYSAGE MÉDITERRANÉEN
Environs de Naples, Italie - les sonnailles d’un troupeau de chèvres sur les hauteurs deNaples; Prises de son : Félix Blume (Italie)
SCÈNE 10 COMMUNAUTÉ, RETOUR À LA PRÉSENCE HUMAINE
Marsala, Italie - quelquesconversations de rue vite envolées ;
Agros, Chypre - Artisteaccompagné d’une guitare électroacoustique, conversations du public ;
En arrière-plan - Agros,Chypre, des grenouilles dans le soir
LES ŒUVRES DE L'EXPOSITION IMMERSIVE PRÉSENTES
L’exposition réalisée avec la collaboration exceptionnelle du musée du Louvre, fait rencontrer des visages et des vies, de l’Égypte et la Mésopotamie, d’Athènes et Rome, à la sculpture du 18e siècle, ouvrant la voie à une découverte inédite des collections du musée du Louvre et des puissances féminines qu’elles recèlent. Par ces visages et ces vies, l’humanité se trouve ainsi incarnée : violences imposées, libertés assumées et portées, d’une rive à l’autre de la Méditerranée.
La Joconde, Portrait de Mona Lisa ;
Léonard de Vinci (1452-1519) ;
Date : 1503 / 1519 ;
Provenance : Italie ;
Technique : Huile sur bois ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 77 cm ;Largeur : 53 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado ;
Cuiller à fard :servante portant des fleurs et des canards ;
Date : -1550 / -1425 ;
Égypte ancienne – Nouvel Empire ;
Technique : Sculpture sur bois ;
Provenance : Cheikh Abd-el-Gourna, région de Thèbes, Égypte ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 22 cm ; © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / ChristianDécamps ;
Fragment de la Stèle de Pharsale : l’exaltation de lafleur ;
Date : -470 /-460 ;
Provenance : Pharsale, Grèce ;
Technique : Bas-relief sur marbre ;
Dimensions : ; Hauteur : 56,5 cm ; Largeur : 67 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Daniel Lebée / Carine Déambrosis ;
Statuette du groupe de Syros ;
Date : -2600 / -2400 ;
Provenance : Cyclades, Grèce ;
Technique : Sculpture sur marbre ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 27 cm ; Largeur : 14 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Daniel Lebée / Carine Déambrosis ;
Miroir du Trésor de Boscoreale : Léda et le cygne ;
Date : -25 / 50 ;
Provenance : Boscoreale, Italie ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 28,8 cm ; Largeur : 16,6 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Hervé Lewandowski ;
Statue de pleureuse ;
Date : -1550 / -1425 Égypte ancienne – 18e dynastie ;
Provenance : Égypte ;
Technique : Terre cuite peinte ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 24,3 cm ; Largeur : 21,5 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Georges Poncet
Statue de la divineadoratrice Karomama
Date : -865 / -809 Égypte ancienne
Provenance : Région de Thèbes, Égypte ;
Technique : Statue en bronze
Dimensions : Hauteur : 64 cm ; Largeur : 15,5 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Christian Décamps
Daphné poursuivie par Apollon ;
Date : 1713 / 1715 ;
Provenance : France
Technique : Sculpture sur marbre ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 132 cm ; Largeur : 135 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) /Pierre Philibert
Statue ;
Date : 25 / 50 ;
Provenance : Italie ;
Technique : Sculpture sur marbre ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 149 cm ;Largeur : 67 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Stéphane Maréchalle ;
Fragment de peinture murale : Terpsichore, muse de ladanse ;
Date : 62 / 79
Provenance : Pompéi, Italie
Technique : Peinture murale ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 51,6 cm ; Largeur : 40,6 cm
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Hervé Lewandowski ;
L’enlèvement des Sabines ;
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) ;
Date : 1637 / 1638 ;
Provenance : France ;
Technique : Huile sur toile ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 159 cm ; Largeur : 206 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Tony Querrec
Masque ;
Date : -1200 / 324 ;
Provenance : Byblos, Liban ;
Technique : Or ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 12,8 cm ;Largeur : 11,6 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Thierry Ollivier ;
Statue de la dame Nésa ;
Date : -2700 / -2620 ;
Provenance : Égypte ;
Technique : Sculpture sur calcaire ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 154 cm ; Largeur : 41 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Christian Décamps ;
Sarcophage des époux ;
Date : -520 / -510 ;
Provenance : Cerveteri, Italie ;
Technique : Argile rouge peinte ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 114 cm ; Largeur : 194 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Philippe Fuzeau ;
Portrait de momie ;
Date : 150 /200 ;
Provenance : Région de Thèbes, Égypte ;
Technique : Bois peint ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 33 cm ; Largeur : 20 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Georges Poncet ;
Statue de Sépa ;
Date : -2700 / -2620 ;
Provenance : Égypte ;
Technique : Sculpture sur calcaire;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 169 cm ; Largeur : 44 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Christian Décamps ;
Sapho; James Pradier (1792-1852) ;
Date : 1848 ;
Provenance : France ;
Technique : Statuette en plâtre ;
Dimensions : Hauteur : 41,6 cm ; Largeur : 21,5 cm ;
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) /
Jean-Marie APPRIOU
Bath of Fire, 2025
Bronze
134 × 95 × 92 cm
Private Collection, Frédéric Jousset
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
The exhibition Song of Water opens with this sculptural brazier, conceived and designed by Jean-Marie Appriou. It takes the form of a fantastical shell with biomorphic lines. Made of bronze, it combines an organic presence with a practical function: it can hold wood and be lit as a fire pit. Inspired by the Christian holy-water font, it reverses its sacred function: no longer holy water, but fire, the alchemical matrix, the primal hearth. Three bronze salamanders support it, creatures said by tradition to be impervious to flames, symbols of regeneration and mastery over the elements. This brazier activates an imaginary world where ancient myths, rebirth through fire, and inhabited sculpture intersect.
Bio
Born in 1986 in Brest, France. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Hicham BERRADA o
Cartes mères #11, #14, #19, 2020-2023
Metals, acrylic glass, and light
38 x 31 x 5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Mennour, Paris
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
The “Cartes mères” are among the few works in the exhibition that feature no marine animals. Instead, Hicham Berrada substitutes mysterious landscapes for living beings, evoking at times an unknown world, at others the remnants of a futuristic archaeology, where fragments of our recent past mingle with imaginary forms. In this series, printed circuit boards are immersed in electrolytic baths that trigger the emergence of resinous, crystalline landscapes. Hicham Berrada’s work explores chemical and natural processes to bring unprecedented forms into being: crystals, cliffs, rocks, or ghostly plant-like structures, in which matter seems to transform and animate itself.
Bio
Born in 1986 in Casablanca, Morocco. Lives and works between Paris and northern France.
Katinka BOCK
K-konvex, 2026
Glass, steel cable
32 x 16 x 24 cm
Jean-Olivier Despres Collection
Text
In Katinka Bock’s work, the fish is a recurring figure that evokes the cycles of life, the flow of water, and the vulnerability of ecosystems. Crafted from glass and suspended from a steel cable, this fish seems to float weightlessly in space, hovering between presence and disappearance. The choice of glass reinforces this ambiguity: at once transparent, fragile, and resilient, it captures light while hinting at its precariousness. Suspended in an unstable equilibrium, the fish becomes a witness to a world in constant transformation, where matter bears the traces of time and where life is revealed in all its fragility.
Bio
Born in 1976 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Lives between Paris and Berlin.
Alex CECCHETTI
Deep Love Bar, 2026
Mixed media
Variable dimensions
Courtesy of the artist
Text
Inspired by the artist's freediving experiences, the installation 'Deep Love Bar' immerses us in an 'imagining' ocean, a welcoming space where the cohabitation of different life forms creates and tells stories. Made using plant-based dyes, the textile installations with coral motifs contribute to this world, while the painting 'Underwater Vision' emerged from an alchemical process: paper immersed in baths of metals, watercolor, water, and lemon allows the pigments to transform on contact with water and acids. Alex Cecchetti thus transforms the catamaran's bar into a living seabed, populated with glasses inspired by marine vegetation and specially designed for the exhibition. The sound piece 'Cetaceans,' played intermittently and evoking the song of cetaceans, lets us hear, beyond the visible forms, the sonic presence of the underwater world.
Bio
Born in 1977 in Terni, Italy. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Ernst HAECKEL
Asteridea (n°40)
Crinoidea (n°20)
Discomedusae (n°88)
Siphonophorae (n°17)
Stephoidea (n°71)
Illustrations taken from Kunstformen der Natur (Nature's Art Forms), published by the Bibliographisches Institut of Leipzig & Vienna between 1899 and 1904
Color print on paper
52,5 x 42 x 3 cm
Le Havre, Muséum d’histoire naturelle
Text
The work of Ernst Haeckel, a biologist and a major figure in the history of the natural sciences, dissolved the boundaries between art and science. A pioneer, he produced his drawings himself, their precision revealing the fascinating diversity of the seafloor, from jellyfish to radiolarians, while celebrating the remarkable symmetry that governs living organisms. These illustrations emerged from the spirit of an era: in the nineteenth century, the rise of oceanography and the great maritime expeditions brought to light forms of life that had previously been unknown. In his landmark publication, Haeckel arranged his drawings with a keen sense of composition, drawing on the legacies of the Renaissance and Baroque and exerting a lasting influence on Art Nouveau artists, transforming nature into a source of wonder that was both scientific and aesthetic.
Bio
Born in 1834 in Potsdam, Germany. Died in 1919 in Jena, Germany.
Taloi HAVINI
Hyena Lullaby, 2020
Video: 3 min 31 sec
Courtesy of the artist and TBA21
Text
Hyena Lullaby immerses visitors in the nocturnal ritual of mass coral spawning, revealing the regenerative power of marine ecosystems. Celebrated by the people of Bougainville and the Buka Islands in Papua New Guinea, the ritual is accompanied by the songs of Sana Balai, reinforcing its cultural significance. The video explores the cycles of life and death inherent in this phenomenon, known as “Hyena” by the Nakas people. The moon’s movements coincide with the release of coral gametes, which float to the surface and then sink back down to form new corals, an annual ritual observed since time immemorial. The work blends scientific observation, poetry, and cultural transmission, highlighting the connection between natural cycles and human practices.
Bio
Born in 1981 in Arawa, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Lives in Brisbane, Australia.
Michael HEIZER
Fish Drawing, 1978
Offset lithography, graphite, oil, and spray paint on zinc plate
93 x 113 cm
Jean-Olivier Despres Collection
Text
The fish figure appeared in Michael Heizer's work as early as the 1960s, at the outset of his involvement with the Land Art movement, of which he is one of the major figures. Here, the fish is depicted in a simplified, almost fossilized manner, evoking both a primitive and an archaeological form. It recalls one of the earliest motifs represented by human societies, from cave paintings to ancient engravings. Michael Heizer is thus interested in these elemental forms that seem to run through civilizations. Nevertheless, this iconography remains rare in his body of work, which makes this piece particularly singular.
Bio
Born in 1944 in Berkeley, United States. Lives and works between New York and San Francisco, United States.
Max HOOPER SCHNEIDER o
The Benthos, Part 1: Creatures of Twilight, 2024
Video
58 min 3 sec
Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, New York
Text
Jellyfish have fascinated several of the artists featured in the exhibition, including Max Hooper Schneider. His film explores the depths of the East Pacific Rise. Made entirely from images and diving data collected during an oceanographic research expedition using a remotely operated vehicle, the film captures rare encounters with marine invertebrates from the twilight zone. The artist creates a dark, psychedelic portrayal of these otherworldly organisms, underscored by a soundscape composed from human bodily sounds. Without relying on digital enhancement or AI, the film celebrates the raw and little-known strangeness of these creatures while bringing together speculative imagination and rigorous science.
Bio
Born in 1982 in Los Angeles, United States. Lives and works in his hometown.
Nadia HUGGINS
Omens, 2026
Mixed media
Variable dimensions
Courtesy of the artist
Note
Using the Caribbean as her primary site for underwater exploration, Nadia Huggins is interested in creating images of the marine environment through the themes of temporality, memory, and transformation. The selection of photographs printed on the boat’s fender covers is an attempt to archive her observations of marine organisms and human presence at sea, revealing the fragility of these two coexisting worlds. Each photographed coral is identified by its GPS coordinates, allowing it to be easily located. Many of them, once thriving, have gradually disappeared before the artist’s eyes.
Bio
Born in 1984 in Trinité-et-Tobago. She lives and works in Saint-Vincent-et-les-Grenadines, in the Caribbean.
Joan JONAS
Excerpts from Moving Off the Land II, 2019
Video, printed reproductions of drawings, and mirrors
Variable dimensions
Commissioned by TBA21–Academy
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Note
A major figure on the international art scene, Joan Jonas has held a deep fascination with the sea for many years, one that occupies a central place in several of her recent works. Presented here in an excerpted form, Moving Off the Land II emerged from three years of research conducted by Joan Jonas in aquariums around the world and off the coast of Jamaica. Conceived as a tribute to the oceans and their rich yet fragile ecosystems, the installation weaves together filmed imagery, drawings, and performance to create an immersive meditation on marine life. Blending observation with myth and memory, the work invites viewers to reflect on the beauty, complexity, and vulnerability of the underwater world at a time of profound environmental change.
Bio
Born in 1936 in New York, United States. Lives and works in her hometown.
Oyjon KHAYRULLAEVA
Rābiṭa, 2026,
Ceramic
200 x 150 cm
Courtesy of the artist
This work was created with the support of Lafayette Anticipations—Fondation Galeries Lafayette as part of the joint Lafayette Anticipations x Art Explora residency program
Text
Located at the entrance to the exhibition space, Rābita (“connection” or “bond” in Arabic) explores the interdependent relationships between humans and marine ecosystems. Inspired by an ancient mosaic from Alexandria depicting a hunting scene, the work reverses its narrative: the marine animal is no longer prey, but an ally. Its borders feature endangered marine species encountered along the boat’s journey, their circulatory systems and skeletal structures unfolding through floral motifs inspired by Islamic art. At the center, the symbol of Pisces becomes a figure of balance between nature and humanity, blurring the boundaries between living beings and their environment.
Bio
Born in 1996 in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Lives and works in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Harumi KLOSSOWSKA DE ROLA
Chinook (Salmon), 2024
Bronze
28 x 80 x 12 cm
Private Collection
Text
This work is part of a group of sculptural series in bronze, alabaster, and wood, devoted primarily to the representation of animals. Harumi Klossowska de Rola observes animals with great precision, while moving away from a strictly naturalistic representation to give them an almost enigmatic presence. Her sculptures thus seem to belong to a world situated between reality and the realm of fairy tales, where each animal can become a figure charged with meaning. Shaped by a constant attentiveness to the living world, her work evokes an imaginary realm where mythological references mingle with symbols drawn from different traditions. These figures evoke totems and question the relationships that human societies maintain with the animal world.
Bio
Born in 1973 in Geneva, Switzerland. Lives and works in France.
Robert LONGO
Untitled (Lionfish), 2021
Charcoal on mounted paper
139,7 x 165,1 x 9 cm
Private Collection, Frédéric Jousset
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
Robert Longo’s animal figures embody forces of power, menace, and fascination. The only lionfish in the exhibition, it is also the fish depicted on the largest scale, its spectacular spread of spiny fins and apparent stillness crystallize the tension between beauty and danger. Drawing on photographs, the artist transposes the animal into a large-scale drawing, distinguished by the expressive power and precision of its details. His use of graphite and charcoal allows him to explore a range of blacks and heighten the dramatic quality of the work.
Bio
Born in 1953 in New York, United States. Lives and works in his hometown.
Ad MINOLITI
Furries for the Ocean (FFTO), 2026
Embodied by Morgan, 2024 & Caty, 2021
Variable dimensions
Courtesy of Crèvecoeur, Paris
“We, the furries, want people to stop killing the oceans. We fight for our friends the Fish, the Whales, the Krill, and all the victims.”
FFTO is an imaginary collective advocating for the rights of trans people, children and young people, as well as the protection of the oceans.
The furries are a queer subculture that embraces radical tenderness, explore the connections between identity, imagination, and animal representation. This artwork is a fantasy of the animals (non-human and human, terrestrial and oceanic) coming together against the destruction of the oceanic world.
The mermaid of the logo has the bear head of the furries,the trans pride flag, and the tail of the fish, embodying the need to connect different struggles, which are often fueled by the same system of consumption at the root of the climate crisis.
The workshop that complements the installation is important to invest the kids in protesting and fighting for their rights: as critical thinking is the only tool to defend themselves from the AI corporations that put their future and present a risk.
The work Furries for the Ocean is presented as an extension of the exhibition Song of Water, presented aboard the museum boat.
Born in 1980 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lives and works in their hometown.
Josèfa NTJAM
Taxonomies fugitives, 2026
Installation composed of:
Myceaqua Vitae, 2020
HD film 07 min 24 sec
Co-produced with Sean Hart & Nicolas Pirus,
Sound: Hugo Mir-Valette; Editing: Sean Hart.
Courtesy of the artist and NICOLETTI Contemporary, London
And prints on STADUR,
variable dimensions,
Courtesy of the artist
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
Like an aquarium, this work is experienced through the glass of the cabin. The installation brings together the video Myceaqua Vitae and a diorama that extends its universe. The video evokes the control panel of a spacecraft, as often depicted in science fiction, used to visualize “extraterrestrial” signals and tell the story of an unclassifiable bioluminescent organism. The diorama brings together a constellation of presences that seem to emerge from the same speculative ecosystem.
Together, they create an immersive environment populated by hybrid entities, planktonic forms, bioluminescent organisms, and possible species of the future, where sculptural traditions from West and Central Africa meet biology and fiction. The film and diorama unfold a speculative ecosystem in which science, myth, and technology engage in dialogue to explore the metamorphoses of living beings in the depths of the sea, forms of memory, and future genealogies.
Bio
Born in 1992 in Metz, France. Lives and works in Saint-Étienne, France.
Jean PAINLEVE
Buste d’hippocampe, 1934
Digital Print
134 x 103 cm
Les documents cinématographiques / Archives Jean Painlevé, Paris
Tentacules de la pieuvre, 1928
Digital Print
82,6 x 104,8 cm
Les documents cinématographiques / Archives Jean Painlevé, Paris
Pince de crabe, 1929
Digital Print
68 x 80 cm
Les documents cinématographiques / Archives Jean Painlevé, Paris
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
Jean Painlevé’s photographic and cinematic work is distinguished by his fascination with the marine world, which he approached both as a scientist and as a poet of the image. A trained biologist, he chose to focus on unusual organisms, drawn to their forms, movements, and often little-known behaviors. A pioneer in the relationship between art and science, he helped, from the 1920s onward, to renew the representation of living organisms, turning scientific filmmaking into a space for experimentation as well as knowledge. In the exhibition, the seahorse, crab, and octopus are observed with meticulous attention, reflecting his focus on the forms and details of marine life.
Bio
Born in 1902 in Paris, France. Died in 1989 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
Pablo PICASSO
Poisson fond noir, 1957
White earthenware, slip decoration
34.5 × 42.5 cm
Mains au poisson, 1953
Red earthenware, slip decoration
Diam.: 32 cm
Poisson chiné, 1953
White earthenware, slip decoration
34 × 42 cm
Private collection, Frédéric Jousset
Text
Featured on three ceramics in the exhibition, the fish is a recurring motif in Picasso’s work. It was in Antibes, in the autumn of 1946, that it took on particular significance: settled on the Mediterranean coast, Picasso painted what he ate directly, in a series of luminous still lifes. This fascination with marine creatures naturally extended into his ceramics. At the Madoura workshop in Vallauris, where he produced around 2,000 pieces from 1947 onward, fish and crustaceans came to populate dishes and plates. The ceramic medium, with its curved surfaces and glazes, offered a new field for exploration: the shape of the dish echoes that of the fish.
Bio
Born in 1881 in Málaga, Spain. Died in 1973 in Mougins, France.
Laure PROUVOST
Transbird, 2022
4 min 12 sec
Courtesy of the artist
Composition: Tsar B, No Bra
Lyrics: Paul Buck, Laure Prouvost
Echoing the sails and their evocation of the marine world, the sound piece Transbird, from one of Laure Prouvost’s video installations, is broadcast throughout the space. It features “Grand-mère,” a recurring figure in her work, given wings to fulfill her dream of rising above the sea and clouds and contemplating the world from the sky. Her flight thus brings different realms of life into resonance: from the depths of the sea to the sky of birds, inviting us to move beyond the boundaries that separate species and their environments. Blending poetry and activism, the artist evokes the consequences of climate change as well as human and animal migrations, while inviting us to imagine new ways of coexisting with the living world and inhabiting the planet.
***
Laure PROUVOST
Ideally You Would Sea Where To Go - Here We Dream Of No More Front Tears, 2024
Print on polyester
250 × 250 cm
Courtesy of the artist
These dockside sails were designed by the artist especially for the Festival. Through these sentences, Laure Prouvost conveys a political message that invites reflection on migration issues, as well as environmental concerns relating to the living world—animals, birds, and fish with the aim of bringing human beings closer to nature. Produced in a workshop in Brittany, the sails also echo, through their very presence, the itinerant dimension of the Art Explora Festival, as well as the connections woven from one port to another throughout its journey. This idea of movement is also extended through the mobility of language: the artist plays with puns and the ambiguities inherent to the English language.
Bio
Born in 1978 in Croix-Lille, France. Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.
Emilija SKARNULYTE
Nucleotides, 2026
Site-specific audiovisual installation: sound, light, digital prints
Variable dimensions
Courtesy of the artist
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
Nucleotides is an audiovisual installation created specifically for the catamaran’s frontdeck, combining sound, light, and digital prints. The work explores microscopic marine life forms as a meeting point between scientific observation, ecological transformation, and mythological imagination. Through constantly evolving patterns, light projections, and layered imagery, the installation reveals hidden underwater worlds and brings to light the invisible systems that connect all forms of life. In Baltic mythology, it is said that goddesses, creatures, and palaces lie buried beneath the sea. This installation echoes those ancient stories. By observing the ocean floor from what she calls an “extraterrestrial archaeology perspective,” the artist seeks to reconstruct the mythologies and beliefs of both the past and the present, imagining them from a viewpoint situated in the future.
Bio
Born in 1987 in Vilnius, Lithuania. Lives and works in motion.
Hiroshi SUGIMOTO
(616) Bay of Sagami Enoura, 2024
(483) Bay of Sagami, Atami, 1997
(614) Bay of Sagami, Enoura, 1997
Gelatin-silver prints
65,4 x 84 x 3 cm
Private Collection, Frédéric Jousset
Text
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Seascapes” series is an invitation to enter the depths and discover the life unfolding there. Begun in 1980, the series comprises more than two hundred black-and-white photographs. What the artist seeks to capture is a landscape unchanged since prehistoric times, deliberately devoid of any human presence. Through long exposures, sometimes lasting several hours, he erases the movement of the waves and clouds, giving his images an aura of timelessness. Sagami Bay evokes a childhood memory for the artist: the view of the sea from a train window. Emerging from the tunnels, he was struck by the sight of the Pacific stretching out toward a clear, sharply defined horizon.
Bio
Born in 1948 in Tokyo, Japan. Lives and works between New York, United States, and his hometown.
Lara TABET
Testing the Waters, 2026
Translucent film
55 × 138 cm
Courtesy of the artist
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Note
Installed on four windows of the ship, this artwork features bacteriograms created from water samples collected in marine environments along the Festival’s route. Using an experimental process that combines microbiology and photography, aquatic microorganisms isolated from each sample are incubated on color photographic film, where their growth alters the gelatin emulsion. Each image captures the microbiological activity of a specific body of water, creating a biological portrait directly shaped by the water itself. Together, the four windows form a map of the ship’s route, with the translucent films functioning as membranes situated at the boundary between the ship’s interior and the surrounding sea.
Bio
Born in 1983 in Achkout, Lebanon. Lives and works in Marseille, France.
Charwei TSAI
Turbo I, 2020
Shells inscribed by hand with the Heart Sūtra in ink
18 x 15 x 13 cm ; 18 x 16 x 13 cm ; 9 x 8 x 2 cm ; 9 x 7 x 2 cm
Courtesy of the artist & Mor Charpentier
Turbo II, 2020
Shells inscribed by hand with the Heart Sūtra in ink
18 x 15 x 13 cm ; 18 x 16 x 13 cm ; 9 x 8 x 2 cm ; 9 x 7 x 2 cm
Courtesy of the artist & Mor Charpentier
Text
Charwei Tsai is the second artist in the exhibition to take up the image of the shell, which here evokes the origins of life. In this series of works, the artist delicately transcribes the Heart Sutra, following the growth pattern of shells and thereby giving form to the fleeting, ever-changing quality expressed in the sutra. As the remnant of a living organism, the shell evokes the cycle of life, death, and disappearance. By inscribing a sacred text onto its surface, Charwei Tsai highlights the ephemeral nature of all existence and questions the fragility of our environment, whether natural or shaped by human hands.
Bio
Born in 1980 in Taiwan. Lives and works in Paris, France.
Anicka YI
Skeletons All The Way Down, 2024
High-density foam, antique chrome finish
94 x 116,8 x 9,5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Esther Schipper Berlin/Paris/Seoul
© Adagp, Paris, 2026
Text
This work by Anicka Yi imagines a paleontological archaeological discovery. The Precambrian, which began with the formation of the planet 4.6 billion years ago, accounts for more than 80% of its geological history and saw the emergence of the earliest forms of life in the oceans. During this period, marine life followed strange and enigmatic evolutionary paths, marked by branching, sudden appearances, and abrupt disappearances. The work’s overlapping, hatched forms evoke these primitive organisms and their ephemeral trajectories, while its aged chrome juxtaposes the fossil traces of the ancient marine world with those, more recent, produced by human activity. Today, the intensive production of plastics and electronics is beginning to alter the geological record, leaving behind a series of “technofossils.”
Bio
Born in 1971 in Seoul, South Korea. Lives and works in New York, United States.
Ammonite (Nom latin : Perisphinctes biplex)
Age: Middle Oxfordian (Jurassic), between 161 and 157 million years ago
Dimensions: 25 x 5 cm
Origin: Madagascar
This spiral-shaped fossil is an ammonite, a marine mollusk belonging to the class of cephalopods, which includes octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish. Its shell consists of partitioned internal chambers. The last chamber, called the habit chamber, contained the animal’s soft body. Ammonites were exclusively marine organisms that became extinct during a major mass extinction event approximately 65 million years ago. This specimen comes from an Upper Jurassic deposit in Madagascar dating back approximately 160 million years.
Block containing invertebrate fossils
Composition: Pterotrigonia bivalves, gastropods, and solitary hexacorallians
Age: Cretaceous, between 145 and 65 million years ago
Dimensions: 10 x 9 x 5 cm
Origin: France
This block of Cretaceous limestone contains a combination of invertebrate fossils. Erosion has gradually dissolved the more fragile limestone matrix, while the more resistant fossil remains have been exposed. It contains bivalve shells from the Trigoniidae family - a group characteristic of the Mesozoic Era, identified here as belonging to the genus Pterotrigonia - as well as several gastropods (mollusks). There are also about ten solitary corals, whose limestone skeletons, called polyps, are remarkably well-preserved.
Unidentified Anguilliform
Age: Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) – 84 million years ago
Dimensions: 108 x 48 x 1.3 cm
Origin: Sahel Aalma, Lebanon
Cretaceous fossils from Lebanon are preserved in a fine-grained limestone that is used locally as ornamental stone. Historical mining of these quarries has revealed a wealth of marine organisms that lived alongside the dinosaurs. Numerous collections of plants, crustaceans, echinoderms, cephalopods, sharks, fish, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles are now preserved in museums in Lebanon and around the world. This specimen is a young eel whose juvenile characteristics do not allow for a precise identification of the species.
Cyclobatis major
Age: Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous) – 95 million years ago
Dimensions: 9.5 x 10.5 x 1.6 cm
Origin: Haqel, Lebanon
The Haqel site north of Beirut has yielded more than 70 species of fossil fish. This diversity and the excellent state of preservation are the result of mass mortality events that occurred in oxygen-deprived marine environments. Under these conditions, organisms are neither dispersed nor degraded, which facilitates their fossilization. This small, circular ray is exceptional. Skates and sharks have a cartilaginous skeleton with little mineralization, which explains why they are rarely preserved as fossils.
Propteridium douvillei
Age: Bartonian (Eocene) – 40 million years ago
13 x 5.5 x 3.6 cm; 8.8 x 7.4 x 3 cm
Origin: Elam, Iran
The Elam fossil site in western Iran contains fossils of species from a deep-sea environment. Propteridium is representative of these deep-sea fish. It exhibits characteristics adapted to this environment, including fused dorsal, caudal, and anal fins, as well as a wide mouth. These two blocks correspond to two parts of the same individual.
Ichthyotringa sp. (= Rhinellus sp.)
Age: Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) – 84 million years ago
Dimensions: 18 x 9.8 x 3.3 cm
Origin: Sahel Aalma, Lebanon
Cretaceous fossils from Lebanon indicate a warm coastal environment that was much higher in elevation than today, with no ice caps and a higher sea level. In these waters near the continents, this fish was an active predator that captured its prey using a long snout equipped with fine teeth. Its name refers to the elongated shape of its snout, which resembles that of certain wading birds.
Spaniodon latus
Age: Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) – 84 million years ago
Dimensions: 17.6 x 9 x 2 cm
Origin: Sahel Aalma, Lebanon
Cretaceous fossils from Lebanon have been known since ancient times. The Romans had already made mention of them. Some were given as gifts to knights during the Crusades, as well as to King Saint Louis in the 13th century. These fossilized fish, discovered in the mountains, were then interpreted as evidence of the Flood. Explorers and merchants of the 19th century subsequently enriched European collections. Taken together, these specimens contribute to our understanding of Upper Cretaceous marine ecosystems. Spaniodon is a relatively common species at the Sahel Aalma site. It is closely related to modern salmon and smelt.
Sands of the Calypso, 1952
43 tubes of sand
Origin: Abulat Islet, Farasan Islands, Red Sea
These stoppered glass tubes are part of a unique collection of sands collected in 1952. The expedition, which departed from the port of Toulon on November 25, 1951, was a historic moment: the first mission of the legendary vessel Calypso, under the command of Jacques-Yves Cousteau. The expedition headed for the Farasan coral archipelago in the Red Sea, carrying divers, photographers, mechanics, zoologists, geologists, and volcanologists. These sands were collected around the islet of Abulat, during explorations of isolated islets, underwater slopes, and reefs. They contain abundant small gastropods, bivalves, foraminifera, and ostracods, illustrating the famous commander’s observation: “The richness of the fauna proved exceptional.”
Exhibition Song of Water curated by Blanche de Lestrange
Oceans are the cradle of life. Long before living beings inhabited the continents, life emerged in water. Shaped by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the oceans are home to a world of extraordinary diversity, from microscopic organisms to creatures of the deep sea. These beings bear witness to life’s extraordinary capacity to transform, adapt, and renew itself in the face of upheaval. By turns admired, studied, or feared, these forms of life tell an ancient story of metamorphosis, resilience, and invention, one that continues to nourish both scientific research and the imagination of artists. From this shared origin remains a deep memory: that of a world in perpetual transformation, where every breath, every vibration, and every movement forms part of a single score of life.
Song of Water invites us to reconnect with this ancient memory by diving beneath the silent seas of Hiroshi Sugimoto, where we encounter a teeming world of mysterious creatures. From fossilized fish millions of years old, true works of art created by nature, to reinterpretations by Pablo Picasso, Robert Longo, Katinka Bock, Harumi Klossowska de Rola, Joan Jonas, and Michael Heizer, the fish becomes a witness to the continuous history of life, embodying both a familiar presence and a mythological creature. Shells, omnipresent in the works of Charwei Tsai and Jean-Marie Appriou, evoke the origins of life, spirituality, the slow sedimentation of time, and the incessant metamorphoses of matter.
At the intersection of art and science, the nineteenth-century biologist Ernst Haeckel, as well as more recently Jean Painlevé, Emilija Škarnulytė, and Lara Tabet, observe, collect, and reveal worlds both visible and invisible to the naked eye. From dark abysses to underwater gardens populated by strange forms, Hicham Berrada, Alex Cecchetti, and Max Hooper Schneider transform the depths into contemplative landscapes where scientific research meets the imagination, and where life reveals its infinite capacity for invention.
The ocean is also an immense soundscape. In its depths, before the world can even be seen, it is vibration. Because sound travels faster and farther through water than through air, the oceans compose a continuous score in which every species, every current, and every breath contributes to a single polyphony of life.
In the face of ecological upheaval, artists explore both the fragility of the oceans and their extraordinary capacity for regeneration. In Taloi Havini’s work, corals become witnesses to a form of life capable of renewal, while Nadia Huggins reveals their vulnerability in the face of environmental change. Drawing on ancient mythologies, Oyjon Khayrullaeva sheds light on the bonds of interdependence that unite all species, while Anicka Yi, Laure Prouvost, and Josèfa Ntjam imagine possible futures in which the boundaries between living beings dissolve, giving rise to new forms of coexistence, whether real or imagined.
Throughout this journey, Song of Water invites us not so much to contemplate the oceans as to listen to them. The oceans then emerge not as an external landscape, but as a living memory, a space where science and myth, observation and wonder, the visible and the invisible intertwine. Where it all began, water continues to carry the stories of life and the promise of the metamorphoses yet to come.
- Blanche de Lestrange