Mark Dion's Oceanomania Explores the Sea Through Art and Science in Monaco

Mark Dion's expansive project "Oceanomania, or the Memory of Mysterious Seas" takes over two venues in Monaco, the Villa Paloma and the Musée Océanographique, from April 12 to September 30, 2011. At Villa Paloma, Dion invites about twenty artists, including very young ones, to explore the sea through wonder, melancholy, and despair. The exhibition opens with a series of paintings by Bernard Buffet inspired by Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," followed by a section on "The Fantastic Sea" featuring Man Ray's film "L'Étoile de mer." Objects from the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM) collection are displayed, including two Monégasque paintings by Claude Monet. The top floor addresses contemporary ecological devastation with sculptures by Ashley Bickerton and drawings by Matthew Barney. The final chapter, "From Expedition to Aquarium," at the Musée Océanographique, presents a giant cabinet of oceanic curiosities. Objects are arranged by theme—from fossils to a 20th-century diving suit to a mysterious energy machine. Works borrowed from other institutions are exhibited among zoological galleries, alongside animal skeletons and polar bears. A tar-covered heron evokes anxiety and suffocation. The project merges cabinets of curiosities with museum vitrines, reuniting art and science in the spirit of the Renaissance.