-until March 6 at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco
-Specially commissioned for the Museum’s Hall of Honor, the monumental installation “Wu Zei” is inspired by the sea and reflects maritime disasters caused by humans.
Combining art and science, it brings together the museum’s exceptional collections.
“Wu Zei,” a hybrid creature between an octopus and a cuttlefish measuring approximately 25 meters in wingspan, is suspended from the ceiling of the Museum’s entrance hall and recalls the nine-meter octopus casting located on the first floor.
The head of “Wu Zei” hovers around the jellyfish chandelier with its eight tentacles stretching across the space: one coils around a column, another extends towards the first room of the exhibition, while others slither towards the sea and the statue of Prince Albert I. While the animal’s head is red like that of an octopus, its tentacles are black like those of a cuttlefish. One of them, akin to a vacuum cleaner, draws in various blackened objects or animals scattered on the ground with its tip and suckers.
By naming his work “Wu Zei,” Huang Yong Ping gives it an ambiguity of meaning. “Wu Zei” (乌贼) is the Chinese name for the cuttlefish, but the ideogram “Wu” (乌) also means black, while “Zei” (贼) means to steal, in the sense of “to spoil” or “to corrupt.” Huang Yong Ping thus plays with language and semiotics (the science of language), enjoying the dual meaning between marine ink and oil spill.
Relying on both Huang Yong Ping’s work and on remarkable collections of marine specimens and underwater fauna, the “Mediterranean” exhibition spectacularly illustrates the dangers threatening this sea “in the middle of the lands.”
The Mediterranean, a major hub of biodiversity, harbors unsuspected and often little-known treasures of life. But behind its beauty lie multiple threats born from human activities, endangering many of its living species.
The exhibition focuses on four current topics to draw attention to the dangers faced by this sea, to amaze the public, to raise awareness, and to encourage engagement for its protection: jellyfish blooms, ocean acidification, invasive species, and the risk of extinction of the bluefin tuna.
For the section dedicated to the blooms, the Oceanographic Museum orchestrates a ballet of Aurelia jellyfish in an aquarium specially designed for this purpose.
