Clarão, cinema and marine biology on board an artisanal fishing boat

From the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we support the Clarão project, an artistic investigation by Silvia Zayas that explores artisanal fishing and marine biodiversity in the Port of Barcelona. On board the Ponte de Rande, one of the last artisanal fishing boats with trammel nets in the Port of Barcelona, the artist works closely with the artisanal fisherwoman Alba Aguilera.

Over the course of five fishing seasons in areas recently designated as Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs), the camera is integrated into the shared work, weaving together stories, songs and gestures.

At Clarão, art is hybridized with scientific rigor thanks to the collaboration with marine biologist Claudio Barría. Together, they have designed remote underwater video systems (BRUV) for the study of electric rays, raising questions such as what happens when the camera becomes just another body within the choreography of fishing or how visual art, marine biology and traditional knowledge of the sea dialogue.

Composing knowledge to imagine sustainable futures

The project, which we support within the framework of our call Composing knowledge to imagine sustainable futures, has been produced by the Dorothy Michaels production and research office. It is a proposal that flees from the descriptive portrait to immerse itself in a sensory territory where what is usually invisible or discarded finds its place, like beings entangled in the meshes of an image not yet formed.

This piece, developed in residence in Hangar, will culminate the trilogy begun with ê (2020) and noise ê (2023), the latter developed within the second edition of the pilot programs of STAPLE of the ACTS Network, also promoted by the Foundation. Currently in the process phase, Clarão will open meeting spaces with a public program in the coming months.

Towards an expanded diffusion with .able

The projects that are developed at the confluence of art, design and science find a fundamental loudspeaker in .able, the visual magazine that makes visible processes that address the complexities of today’s society from this field.

On this platform you can access the Sparks project developed by Silvia Zayas together with Claudio Barría in dialogue with the broader framework of noise. It is deployed in digital format as an artistic-investigative project that addresses the resistance of the Torpedo torpedo electric ray in highly transformed urban environments on the coast between Barcelona and Badalona. Combining ecology, politics and audiovisual experimentation, the research explores how these species manage to survive in conditions of pollution, noise and human pressure.

From the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we accompany this type of initiative that allows us to imagine sustainable futures from sensitivity, respect for ecosystems and the recognition of the artisanal trades that still inhabit our coasts.