We connect the UN Global Goals

with art

Art for Action

Inspiring action for the Sustainable Development Goals

Super Reef

Restoring 55 km² of lost reefs in the Danish ocean

Art Charter for Climate Action

Uniting the visual arts sector in climate action

Circular Museum by MoMA and ART 2030

A virtual panel discussion series

Art for a Healthy Planet 2023

Sharing great art to inspire action for climate, our environment, and biodiversity

Getting Climate Control Under Control

Committing to real climate action

The Hope Forum

ART 2030 for the UNITED NATIONS Agenda for Sustainable Development & UNESCO ResiliArt

Art for Hope

Art responds to the climate catastrophe

Partnerships as a Catalyst for Change

Hignline New York City

Art for a Healthy Planet 2022

Sharing great art to inspire action for climate, our environment, and biodiversity

Interspecies Assembly

SUPERFLEX

ART 2030 Presents

Conversations on Art and Sustainability

Danh Vo Presents: A Haven for Diverse Ecologies

Danh Vo

Art for a Healthy Planet 2021

Sharing great art to inspire action for climate, our environment, and biodiversity

UN high-level event on Culture & Sustainable Development

Art Sector Luminaries Address the United Nations

Art for a Healthy Planet 2020

Sharing great art to inspire action for climate, our environment, and biodiversity

GOALS

Christian Falsnaes

Breathe with Me

Jeppe Hein

Vertical Migration

Part of Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX: About the Artwork

Interspecies Assembly

Part of Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX: About the Artwork

ART 2030 New York

For Art and the Global Goals

Tow with The Flow

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen

Planet Art

Amapá

YES

Yoko Ono

Soleil Levant

Ai Weiwei

See more

arrow_readmore
arrow_footer_up

Vertical Migration

2021-2022

SUPERFLEX

Image: Vertical Migration, SUPERFLEX, 2021. Installation view at Danish Architecture Center (DAC) and BLOX, 2021. Vertical Migration is commissioned by ART 2030 and TBA21–Academy, and supported New Carlsberg Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Beckett Fonden, and Danish Arts Foundation. Vertical Migration was developed in close collaboration with Kollision. Vertical Migration is part of Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030. Photo by Robert Damisch, courtesy of SUPERFLEX.

Interactive Animated Film in DAC Passage.

Sunset to Sunrise, 28 Oct-28 Nov 2021.


Vertical Migration is a dramatic filmwork drawing focus on a siphonophore: a symbol of the many working as one. Traveling from the depths of our oceans, the siphonophore is not a single animal but a colony of specialized marine organisms that work together to enhance group survival, and for this reason, chosen specifically as the first delegation of the animal world to the Interspecies Assembly.


In New York, Vertical Migration brought the first nonhuman representative at a grand scale to the UN Headquarters, while in Copenhagen, Vertical Migration offers an intimate real-time encounter between humans and one of the many species we share our planet with. Traveling from the depths of our seas to meet us four meters below water in DAC Passage, the Siphonophore is sensitive to human awareness of, and behavioral change, according to the Interspecies Contract engraved across the Interspecies Assembly sculptural gathering site. Human actions are carefully monitored by this unique species: if humans choose to move and disrupt, the Siphonophore will hideaway. But if humans choose to listen and idle, the Siphonophore will emerge from the dark waters to meet with us.

01
Images: Slide 1: Vertical Migration, SUPERFLEX, 2021. Installation view at Danish Architecture Center (DAC) and BLOX, 2021. Vertical Migration is commissioned by ART 2030 and TBA21–Academy, and supported New Carlsberg Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Beckett Fonden, and Danish Arts Foundation. Vertical Migration was developed in close collaboration with Kollision. Vertical Migration is part of Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030. Photo by Robert Damisch, courtesy of SUPERFLEX. Slide 2-6: Vertical Migration, SUPERFLEX, 2021. Installation view at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, 2021. Vertical Migration is commissioned by ART 2030 and TBA21–Academy, and the presentation in New York was supported by Avatar Alliance Foundation, Dalio Philanthropies, OceanX, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), New Carlsberg Foundation, The Obel Family Foundation, Beckett Fonden, and Danish Arts Foundation. Vertical Migration was developed in close collaboration with Kollision. Vertical Migration is part of Interspecies Assembly by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030. Photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy SUPERFLEX.

From the Artists:


The sea is not an abyss. It teems with an almost unimaginable array of life. Every night, the largest biological migration on Earth takes place, as trillions of creatures travel closer to the surface to feed. Some of these animals, like shrimp, are well-known. Others, like siphonophores—relatives of jellyfish—are unfamiliar: varying wildly in size, from the slightness of a fingernail to the length of a whale, they look like nothing that we find on land.


How does it feel to be one of these creatures? To explore this question, SUPERFLEX designed a computer-generated siphonophore and created an interactive animated film, Vertical Migration, depicting its ascent. The siphonophore responds to viewer’s presence: When the viewer is active in the space the siphonophore will retract and remain distant, while when the viewer is idle the siphonophore comes closer and eventually a state of symbiosis between the siphonophore and the idle viewer can be achieved.


Unsettling our perceptions of scale and otherness, Vertical Migration is an intimate encounter with a life form that bears no resemblance to human beings, though we share a planet, an ecosystem, and a future. Because of sea-level rise, humans will also be migrating vertically in the coming centuries, to higher elevations and raised buildings. The siphonophore’s story is our story. Though we can never experience its journey through the pitch-black ocean depths, we can shift our perspective to recognize that we’re connected, that our actions affect each other, and that we share a common fate. 

55.671801020929
12.579197607479

Visit Vertical Migration

Vertical Migration

Interactive Animated Filmwork
Sunset to Sunrise, Free


Projection Hours
28-30 October: 17.30-08.30
31 October-12 November: 16.30-07.00
13-28 November: 16.00-08.00


DAC Passage
Danish Architecture Center (DAC) and BLOX
Copenhagen

SUPERFLEX

Photo: Ulrik Jantzen/Büro Jantzen.

SUPERFLEX is a Copenhagen based artist group working with an idea of art that is not bound to any specific form or context.


Their artistic practice embraces different perspectives and focuses on applying artistic agency to all beings. It questions structures of power, ownership, collective action, environmental challenges and interspecies relations. SUPERFLEX works with a wide range of media and topics, focusing on social, political and economic systems.

Vertical Migration was co-commissioned by

Vertical Migration is supported by

Vertical Migration is presented in Copenhagen at

Vertical Migration in Copenhagen is presented with thanks to

Vertical Migration in New York was supported by

ART 2030's Biodiversity Focus is generously supported by

Aarhusgade 88
2100 Copenhagen Ø
Denmark

CVR No. 38 35 42 72

info@art2030.org

+45 6169 4402

Connect with ART-2030

All rights reserved by ART 2030.
ART 2030 cannot be held responsible for misprints or alterations regarding the content of this website.