Contested Waters

𝟐 𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐫𝐞 – 𝟐𝟑 𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓


S.a.L.E. Docks, Venezia, Italia

Inaugurazione: 2 ottobre h.18.30

Curatrice: ɪ-ʏ ʜꜱɪᴇʜ

Artistə:
Chen Chen Yu, Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, Szu-Ni Wen + Chia Hsuan Sun,
Tzuan Wu, Jui-Lan YAO

Organizzatori: Hong-Gah Museum & Sale Docks


Sponsor: Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation, RSI Group, Lion Pencil CO, NICHE – Centro per le Scienze Umane Ambientali dell’Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia

In 𝘈𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 W.G. Sebald scrive di aver “quasi perso la ragione” attraversando il Ponte della Pace nel 1980.

Attraversare acque contese, cercare un varco tra conflitti, può davvero essere così impensabile? È possibile semplicemente esserci, restare, senza essere respintə o sedottə via?

𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 esplora le acque come luoghi militarizzati e capitalizzati, specchi di frizioni geopolitiche.

La mostra riunisce artisti che, attraversando mari torbidi e inquieti, ci accompagnano — tra sirene, sangue blu di granchi posti a ferro di cavallo, e corpi liquidi, desideranti e stanchi. Fino all’altra sponda. Fino al ponte della pace.

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October 2nd – November 23^rd, 2025

Venue: S.a.L.E. Docks, Venice, Italy 

Artists: Chen Chen Yu, Ranjit Kandalgaonkar, Szu-Ni Wen+ Chia Hsuan Sun,

Tzuan Wu, Jui-Lan YAO

Organizers: Hong-Gah Musuem & Sale Docks 

Sponsors: Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation, RSI Group, Lion Pencil CO, NICHE Center for Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Does Sebald try to say that to cross the warring water, to reach the other side, borders something unthinkable? He “almost” went out of his mind. Perhaps he did not. Is it really that impossible to find a corridor in the midst of contested waters, to the other shore? Is it possible to make peace, or simply to be there? Would someone shoot me, or seduce me away, from taking this route named peace? 

Contested Waters addresses the ways in which waters are militarized, capitalized, and thus troubled in the age of hyper geopolitical frictions. The exhibition presents artistic attempts to stay with these considerably impossible aquatic troubles. We wrestle with the perplex proposed by Sebald’s enigma of losing one’s mind trying to pass militarized waters, by bringing together a string of stellar artists who, along the way, in the dark, surrounded by murky and warring seas, may lead us through, side by side with haunting sirens and our human bodies already saturated by the infusion of horseshoe crab’s blue blood. The heavy, desiring, and at times weary bodies of liquid we carry through shall be with us to the other side, to the bridge of peace.