“Art can make people feel climate change in their gut, rather than just understand it,” Lars Jan, Creator of Holoscenes
Explore global warming and rising waters through “Holoscenes” – the public art and performance project that will be presented on The Ringling’s Bolger Campiello on Sarasota Bay on March 25-28.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, conceptual artist Lars Jan has been “riveted by media images of comparatively frail human figures at the mercy of surging waters, their bodies and movements transformed by this life-giving element momentarily turned against them.”
In 2012, when the rising waters of Hurricane Sandy reached his Brooklyn apartment, Jan began the research that would lead to the creation of “Holoscenes.” The challenge for Jan was to determine how the complex, topic of climate change could be communicated in an impactful and lasting way. He met that challenge with a mesmerizing work of movement/installation art that elicits an immediate response.
“Inside a massive aquarium, a single performer simulates an everyday behavior that collaborators around the world have submitted by video — such as making ramen in Japan or fixing a fishing net in Rwanda,” Jan said, about his project. “Driven by streams of environmental data, water surges in and out at varying speeds, deluging the performers while they adapt their behaviors to this cycle of endless mini-floods — a collision of the patterns both making up our lives and transforming our biosphere.”
The Ringling’s affiliation with Lars Jan began in 2012 with a conversation about predictions of climate change and rising waters that place the first floor of the magnificent Ca’d’Zan below sea level before the end of this century. Given the potency of presenting this powerful work in that context, The Ringling stepped forward to co-commission Holoscenes for a site-specific installation/performance on Sarasota’s rising bayfront.
For a video of the project click here.
A full schedule is below:
- Tuesday, March 24 – tech rehearsals – open to public
- Wednesday, March 25 – Saturday, March 28 – performance (non-ticketed, open to public)
o Wed: noon-5 p.m.
o Thur: noon-sunset (8 p.m.)
o Fri and Sat: noon-5 p.m.
- Saturday, March 28 – final performance / Pre-strike and tank draining
- Sunday, March 29 – Strike/load out / 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
