The ocean speaks. New ecologies and new economies of the seas at the Disseny Hub Barcelona proposes a dialogue within the framework of the America’s Cup Cultural Regatta.
How is Barcelona’s relationship with the sea changing as a result of climate change, and in what ways can we rethink it? These are some of the questions that the exhibition The Ocean Speaks. New Ecologies and New Economies of the Sea. It will open on 10 October at Disseny Hub Barcelona as part of the Cultural Regatta linked to the America’s Cup.
Taking as its starting point the case of Barcelona, which after the 1992 Olympic Games turned its seafront into a key element of its international image, the exhibition proposes a global view of the challenges and conflicts that happen in communities facing the sea. They are home to 40% of the world’s population and much of the world’s most valued territory. However, several factors such as the foreseeable rise in sea levels, the increase in adverse climatic events and the desire to protect the seabed force us to rethink the relationship that coastal cities establish with the sea and the beings that inhabit it.
One of the immersive rooms of the exhibition, at Disseny Hub Barcelona. Museum editorial credit.
The ocean speaks. New ecologies and new economies of the seas portrays the effects of human activity on the sea and invites us to take a fresh look. All this in a key political and environmental context for the ocean: in June 2025, Nice will host the United Nations conference on the oceans, where it is hoped that 30% of the oceans will be protected by 2030.
The exhibition is almost 900 metres long and shows fifteen projects from different disciplines such as architecture, technology, speculative design and urban planning. All of them show the current reality, pose hypothetical scenarios of the future and try to reimagine the presence of the sea in our lives.
The exhibition shows fifteen projects from different disciplines. Museum editorial credit.
Some of the participating projects are the immersive audiovisual installation Seeing Echoes In the Mind of the Whale, by the English collective Marshmallow Laser Feast; Cartografía Crítica de la Barcelona Submarina, by the Institute for Postnatural Studies, which collects data and accounts of the first 500 metres of Barcelona’s coast; and Anatomía de una playa, by the landscaping studio Landlab, based on a project to redesign the beach of La Pineda, affected by the works at the Port of Tarragona.
The ocean speaks. New ecologies and new economies of the seas has been curated by Jose Luis de Vicente, with the collaboration of Fundación Telefónica, Manifesta 15 and iGuzzini.
It can be visited from 10 October 2024 to 25 February 2025 at Disseny Hub Barcelona.
