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Ariel Guzik The Nereida Capsule 2007 Image by Rob Battersby Installation view at FACT

The Nereida Capsule (2007)

Mexican musician and artist Ariel Guzik’s work sets out to preserve mysteries, rather than try to explain them. He is interested in how we perceive nature through our senses, fascination and fantasy. Here, he presents a new installation, incorporating sound, drawings and sculptural works from his long-term research project to communicate musically with whales and dolphins in the wild. This installation muses on their sonic world and language and suggests an undersea planet almost separate to the one we know, populated by very different intelligences and cultures.

Guzik designed his submersible musical instrument Nereida, to connect with ocean mammals (or ‘cetaceans’). In the deep sea, its subtle vibrations invite a chorus of responsive sounds from whales and dolphins; in the gallery, the instrument’s music and the recordings of this cetacean choir reverberate through the space. Alongside, Guzik premieres a new film, charting the expedition of his latest instrument Holoturian into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

All artworks are courtesy of the artist.

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