The exhibition ISLAND INNOVATOR by Ana Alenso (VEN) is dedicated to the artistic question of how bodies are configured in the field of tension between technology and its materialities. The boundaries and dualisms between human and technology, subject and object, material and immaterial seem to be breaking down. Are the machines that we humans use to drill for oil kilometres deep into the earth's crust an embodiment of human desire and craving for capital and more and more?

Ana Alenso's artistic work is preceded by intensive research. Thematically and formally, she is concerned with the global dependency on resources and the political, social and economic exploitation that goes with it. Field studies and scientific reports, as well as interpersonal dialogue with environmental activists, form the basis of her research. In her projects, the Venezuelan-born artist tends to focus on specific case studies, such as the international oil industry or gold mining in Latin America, and their consequences for nature and local populations.

Her solo exhibition ISLAND INNOVATOR is an assemblage of sculpture, installation, photography and video. The installations and sculptures consist of scaffolding, hoses, pipes and barrels - often found in scrap yards. Alenso assembles found technological traces of extractivism into poetic, industrial yet darkly dystopian sculptures. They form balances and cycles in which concepts such as fluidity, infinity, verticality, but also error, take on a material form and position.

Following a residency in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in the winter of 2023, Alenso has created new works for this exhibition that deal with the overwhelming yet seductive feeling of being confronted with the offshore platforms in the harbour: their size, the constant stream of people working there, the roar of the machines and the smell of the oil emanating from them penetrate the body, even if you don't want them to.  
The Island Innovator platform is on the island of Las Palmas, where it has been parked for a few days for maintenance before continuing its journey to Sierra Leone in Africa, where it is currently drilling for oil on the seabed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the past, navigation was based on the position of the stars. Today, it uses information from highly specialised satellites orbiting hundreds or even thousands of kilometres above the Earth, beyond the stratosphere. These satellites are responsible for monitoring the intensive and extensive extraction of oil from the seabed. This creates a link between two completely contrasting and extreme places on our planet.

In a new video installation As Above, So Below (2024), Alenso speculates on the use of satellite technology for this deep-sea oil exploration, while in other new installations she explores the sculptural potential of oil rigs, reinterpreting them as structures or body machines that embody the risks associated with offshore oil exploration.

Deepwater Horizon (2023) is an installation based on extensive research into offshore platforms in the Atlantic. The installation focuses on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred in 2010 off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the Macondo oil platform operated by BP. It is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in human history. To visualise the architecture and ecological dangers of these platforms, Alenso has designed a closed circuit, a sculptural installation activated by the use of light, water, oil and fog. Recycled, reused and reclaimed materials such as hydraulic cylinders, metal pipes and hoses were deliberately used in the composition of the circuit.

Ana Alenso has held residencies at the Goethe Institute in Chile, the Villa Sträuli in Switzerland and the Urbane Künste Ruhr in Dortmund, Germany. Recent exhibitions include Geneva Biennale: Sculpture Garden in Switzerland, Street Fight at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland; Oil, Beauty and Horror in The Petrol Age at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; The Garden Bridge at Brücke Museum, El Museo de la Democracia at NGBK and and Terrestrial Assemblage at Floating University in Berlin. She holds an MFA in Art in Context from the Berlin University of the Arts (2015), an MFA in Media Art & Design from the Bauhaus University Weimar (2012) and a BA from the Armando Reverón Arts University in Venezuela (2004).

Text: Pauline Doutreluingne