INTERTIDAL SHELTER III

Sculptural garden by the artist duo Kåre Aleksander Grundvåg & Trond Ansten
Part of «The Ocean Show» at Bergen Kunsthall, 2021

How can we conduct an efficient small scale seaweed garden by withdrawing CO2 from the ocean? How can outraged oil rigs be turned into coral reefs and become diverse biotopes of large kelp forests and marine life?

Drawing inspiration from the architect and futurist Wolf Hartmut Hilbertz who founded the discipline of Marine Cyberculture in the '70s we developed a new kind of conductive clay with a high content of graphite. Our 3D printed sculptures stretched through the intertidal zone at Store Lungegårdsvann in the center of Bergen and was plugged to a solar panel on shore. As electricity flows through the saltwater from an anode around the sculptures it will trigger electrolysis where CO2 and minerals from the ocean are bound as limestone on the surface of the sculptures. In combination with our design inspired from traditional nordic yeast logs this may create the perfect substrate for coral to form and seaweed to grow.

This project builds upon our sculpture garden «Intertidal Shelter I» that was shown at Lofoten International Art Festival in 2019 and the two remaining wooden logs from back then traveled the stockfish-route from Lofoten to find a new home inside Bergen Kunsthall. Alongside these we were truly honored to show an installation of original works from our inspirator Wolf Hartmut Hilbertz. There was a sculpture from his very first attempt on harvesting minerals of the ocean, publications and his drawings of future underwater coral-cities.

The grandchild of Wolf Hartmut Hilbertz supported us by leanding material from Hilbertz ́s foundation to the installation inside Bergen Kunsthall.

Bergen og Omland havnevesen made great affort by providing a suited location for our experimental seaweed garden and Skaland Graphite supported us with a large amount of high quality graphite from their mine on Senja. On the financial side, we were sponsored by the Arts Council Norway & Troms og Finnmark county council.