when the world becomes our body

Installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

The exhibition when the world becomes our body consists of four video works, and one participatory work, which investigates the relation between human and nature through interactions between the body and the tidal landscape. In a time of climate- and biodiversity crisis, the exhibition asks us where the human body ends, our surroundings begin, and what it means if the world is our body.

Installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Immersion, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Immersion, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Immersion, installation view, Kunstpakhuset, 2022

Immersion, installation view, Kunstpakhuset, 2022

Immersion, installation view, Kunstpakhuset, 2022

Undulation, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Undulation, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Undulation, installation view, Kunstpakhuset, 2022

Undulation, installation view, Kunstpakhuset, 2022

Reflection, installation view, Kunstpakhuset, 2022

Reflection, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Reflection, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Horizon, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Reflection, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Connections, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Connections, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Connections, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Connections, installation view, the Round Tower, 2022

Immersion, video stills, 2022

Reflection, video stills, 2022

Horizon, video still, 2022

Undulation, video still, 2022

Works

Immersion is a 2-channel video installation in which two men wearing business suits appear, life-size, on each vertical screen. They stand on the sea floor while the tide comes in, slowly rising from their feet to their head until they are fully covered, drowning in the sea. We stand in front of these men, eye to eye, and see our own demise mirrored in their bodies.

2-channel FHD video, 16:9 vertical projections,
 Stereo sound  
Duration: 2h13m10s, loop 
Dimensions.: 2 screens of 151cm x 256cm  
2022

Undulation is a 24-hour time-lapse of ‘the breath of the earth’ — the tide is ebbing on the in-breath and flooding on the out-breath. By experimenting with notions of time-perception, a connection between the rhythm of the oceanic tide and the rhythm of the human breath is established, opening up ideas of an animate earth.

1-channel FHD video projection,
Stereo sound
Duration: 23m58s, loop
Dimensions.: 470cm x 110cm
2022

Reflection is a floor projection in which a dancing, slow-moving body appears in the reflection of a thin water surface. The work is a rare interplay between clouds, sun, wind and the moving body, reflected in the water surface above varying textures of sand. This interplay is alive and moving with tranquility, layers are morphing together, engaging in each other’s presence by blurring the liminal space, while our perception is getting fuzzy trying to figure out where one element stops and another begins.

1-channel FHD video, 16:9 floor projection
Duration: 12m54s. loop
Dimensions: 300cm x 170cm
2022

Horizon is a video work that immerses you in a vast inter-tidal landscape that lies ambiguously in the space between stillness and movement. You start hearing steps in the sand, then gradually notice a dot moving in the distance—something is slowly and exponentially increasing in size and detail.

By exploring the space between appearance and non-appearance, a meditative space is created where one can question the process of recognizing and classifying objects through our senses.

1-channel video projection, FHD 16:9
Stereo sound
Duration: 16m14s, loop
Dimensions: 500cm x 280cm
2022

Connections is a participatory artwork where visitors are invited to reflect and draw connections between concepts that are significant for our relationship to the world around us.

Where does the human body begin and where does the natural world end? Is there such a boundary between human and nature? And what happens if we experience the world as our own body?

Materials: Yarn, pens, pencils, paper, wood, nails
Dimensions: Variable
2022

Credits

Amund Bentsen & Benjamin Skop, when the world becomes our body, 2022

The works were recorded in the tidal zone in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland in 2019 by invitation from the Taigh Chearsbhagh Museum & Arts Centre.

The exhibition was supported by: A. P. Møller Fonden and Københavns Kommune Rådet for Visuel Kunst

Exhibitions
when the world becomes our body, the Round Tower, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022
when the world becomes our body, Kunstpakhuset, Ikast, Denmark, 2022
Ecognosis, the Taigh Chearsbhagh Museum & Arts Centre, North Uist, Scotland, 2019

BENJAMIN SKOP

WORKS EXHIBITIONS ABOUT