Ocean Space Venice hosts collaborative exhibition exploring climate crisis through poetic marine installations

Ocean Space in Venice presents 'Thus waves come in pairs,' a two-part exhibition featuring collaborative work by Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano alongside new sculptures by Simone Fattal. Curated by Barbara Casavecchia, the show runs through November 5 at the deconsecrated San Lorenzo church, which became home to Ocean Space in 2019. The exhibition culminates three years of research by the artists, focusing on climate change's impact on marine ecosystems without relying on technical jargon. Fattal's ceramic figures reference Máyya and Ghaylán from classical Arabic poetry, while a pale yellow male figure occupies the church's baroque altar niche. Halilaj and Urbano's 'Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas' features forty-two aluminum fish-shaped instruments that musicians play throughout the exhibition. Co-commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, the installation includes music boxes activated by paper strips and a stingray with flappable fins. The exhibition title comes from Etel Adnan's 2012 poem 'Sea and Fog,' honoring the late artist who died in 2021. Light filtering through clerestory windows makes the aluminum fish glitter like canal water, creating evanescent effects alongside the music. The show celebrates two queer couples' creativity in a former Catholic sanctuary, suggesting art and poetry are essential for imagining different futures for oceans.