The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Nice (MAMAC) hosts Ursula Biemann’s work from August 28, 2020, to January 17, 2021, through the exhibition Indigenous Knowledge – Cosmological Fictions.
The exhibition Indigenous Knowledge – Cosmological Fictions is housed in a darkened room, and for good reason: there are no paintings or sculptures here, but video artworks. For the first time in France, a part of Ursula Biemann’s work is highlighted through several video installations, ranging from nine to thirty-eight minutes. These installations take viewers on a journey across the world: to the forests of Ecuador, Bangladesh, Canada, Norway, and into the depths of the underwater world.
Raising Awareness of Contemporary Ecological Challenges
While Ursula Biemann’s videos transport viewers through different landscapes, the main idea behind her work remains to raise awareness of “contemporary ecological challenges, the extraction and unequal distribution of Earth’s resources, and migratory flows, as well as the consequences of pressure on the environment and all living beings” as explained by the MAMAC. Here, the selected projections primarily focus on environmental issues. It is a blend of testimonies and scientific, anthropological, and philosophical research presented in this exhibition through the videos. For example, Forest Law, created in 2015 by the videographer and Paulo Tavares, narrates how the Indigenous people fight against oil companies, suing them to save their lands. The filmmaker gives voice to the Indigenous communities, scientists, and legal figures who are witnesses to this issue. In recent years, Ursula has also turned to fictional narratives, such as Acoustic Ocean created in 2018 (also included in the exhibition). This piece tells the story of a young scientist of Sami origin who records the sounds of marine species.
