Armin Linke's 'Prospecting Ocean' Explores the Legal and Scientific Depths of the Pacific

Armin Linke's exhibition 'Prospecting Ocean' opened at the former headquarters of the Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR) in Venice during the 2018 Architecture Biennale preview. The project, three years in the making, stems from Linke's earlier Anthropocene Observatory at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin with curator Anselm Franke and Territorial Agency. It was developed through three Pacific expeditions with TBA21–Academy's The Current program aboard the Dardanella, founded by Francesca von Habsburg and directed by Markus Reymann. The show assembles photographs, videos, archival materials, UN meeting footage, and interviews, focusing not on aesthetic or romantic views of the ocean but on its representation in legal, scientific, and everyday contexts. Linke collaborated with Giulia Bruno, Giuseppe Ielasi, curator Stefanie Hessler, graphic designer Linda Van Deursen, and architect Kuehn Malvezzi. Scientists from CNR-ISMAR helped select cartographic and scientific documents. The installation uses footage from GEOMAR and MARUM's ROV archives, transformed into a three-screen display with a fourth screen showing scientific report excerpts. Key influences include Bruno Latour's ethnographic methods and Linke's work at MIT and IUAV. The exhibition highlights geopolitical agendas behind deep-sea resource exploitation and the need for public awareness.