Chus Martínez & Alex Jordan

Chus Martínez, who has a background in philosophy and art history, is head of the Institute Art Gender Nature FHNW Academy of Arts and Design in Basel and curator at der TANK. She was the expedition leader of The Current, a project initiated by TBA21–Academy (2018–2020) and between 2020-2022 she has been the artistic director of the Ocean Space, Venice, a space initiated by TBA21–Academy. The Current is also the inspiration behind Art is Ocean, a series of seminars and conferences held at the Institute Art Gender Nature which examines the role of artists in the conception of a new experience of nature. She previously worked as chief curator at El Museo Del Barrio, New York. For dOCUMENTA(13) (2012) she was head of department, and a member of the Core Agent Group. Other past positions include chief curator at MACBA, Barcelona (2008–2011), director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2005–2008) and artistic director of Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2002–2005). She curated the National Pavilion of Cataloniaat the 56th Biennale di Venezia (2015) as well as the National Pavilion of Cyprus in 2005. She recently co-edited together with Sabine Himmelsbach the publication Coding Care—Towards a Technology for Nature, she edited and wrote Like This! Natural Intelligence As Seen by Art (2021).

Alex Jordan is a permanent Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute, specialising in animal behaviour and heading the Comparative Behavioural Evolution research group. He works on oceans, lakes and forests, where animals live and have evolved. He has held editorial positions at The American Naturalist and Movement Ecology and his practice lies at the interface between science, art, and community engagement, collaborating with artists such as Tabita Rezaire, SUPERFLEX, TBA-21 and Tomás Saraceno. As a scientist, Jordan takes computational approaches developed for model laboratory systems such as Drosophila and zebrafish, and uses them in environments where animal and plant behaviour has evolved – Lake Tanganyika, the Mediterranean Sea, coral reefs and tropical rainforests. Using techniques such as automated behavioural tracking and 3D reconstruction of natural environments, and working on our perception of the animal world, Alex Jordan challenges our preconceptions and gives us a real insight into the non-human experience.