7th Athens Biennale 2021: ECLIPSE

Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen has cultivated a robust artistic practice that investigates the power of environmental storytelling through the use of 3D animation, sound, and immersive installations. His works are catalysed by Steensen’s interest in how imagination, technology, and ecology are interwoven with each other and in our daily lives. As part of his multifaceted oeuvre, Steensen actively creates digital artworks, from immersive VR ecosystems to multimedia installations, in an effort to bridge the physical and digital worlds. This multimodal approach to narrative-building serves to create poetic interpretations of overlooked natural phenomena that occur in our social environment and invites audiences to enter new ecological realities. Steensen’s practice is grounded in extensive fieldwork that is ignited by collaborating with experts from a variety of creative fields, such as composers, writers, scientists, and artists to inform the works that he creates.

As part of his creative process, Steensen sources found organic materials from excursions and ventures. These materials are then digitised and transmuted to exist within a digital universe.  This digital universe is replete with 3D scanners, photogrammetry, satellite data, and computer game software. Inspired by ecology-oriented science fiction and conversations with biologists and ethnographers, Steensen’s projects are ultimately virtual simulations populated by mythical beings existing in radical ecological scenarios. He often bases these projects on our current world, resulting in the cultivation of a lattice that cross-pollinates both the natural and unnatural. Through this cross-pollination and world-building, he creates a unique experience for the viewers of his work to imagine and immerse themselves in another reality.

AB7: ECLIPSE