Screening Room II

Ground

In this second room, we lift our gaze from the subterranean focus of Delve, to the Earth from surface to sky. Here, we contemplate the cycles of our planet – both natural and human-made. From the flight paths of birds to the courses of rivers, the ebb and flow of tides, and the endless movement of things, we witness human debris woven into the fabric of natural cycles. These works reveal the processes that may steer us toward peril, offering a space to reflect on the consequences of our interventions.

Earth Tides
Bethany Johnson

Video Art

We open with Earth Tides by Bethany Johnson, described by the artist as “a quiet meditation on the Earth’s cycles.” Johnson developed the piece during a two-month residency at the McDonald Observatory; the work is presented as a looping video and blends scientific and informational textures with observational footage to trace planetary rhythms – respiration, tides, rainfall, seasons – alongside slower geologic processes such as sedimentation and erosion. Johnson’s broader practice frequently engages scientific imagery, which this piece uses to ask how knowledge of Earth is produced and used – for extraction, for repair, for understanding.

Note for photosensitive viewers: video contains flashing imagery.

Solid Landscapes
Marcelina Maria Wellmer

Short

A ground sweep of a different sort: in Solid Landscapes, Marcelina Maria Wellmer compiles aerial and landscape footage shot in Germany, northern Sweden and Finland to document large-scale shifts in land use. The film moves from flights over monocultural fields to closer footage of open pits and extraction sites, reproducing and multiplying visual evidence of gradual, widespread change. Presented from both bird’s-eye and intimate perspectives, the work foregrounds processes of production and material extraction, leaving the viewer unsure whether what they see is a fragment of the present Earth or a bleak, futuristic vision. This observational film extends the exhibition’s examination of surface systems and human–earth relations.

Trois Rives (Three Shores)
Damien Cattinari

Feature Film

Presented as a form of experimental documentary, Three Shores is a poetic portrait of an imaginary river. By crossing it, from east to west, or by making a detour to the south, from red to green, from the undergrowth to the city, to its industrial zone: the film attempts to map the functioning and organisation of our society through the time of flowing water.

Under the Overpass
James DeLisio