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The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum is hosting an installation by the American artist, Wu Tsang, based on the film adaptation of Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick, in the temporary exhibition hall (Level -1) from 21 February to 11 June.

This project was presented at the 2022 Venice Biennial as part of The Milk of Dreams international art exhibition, set in a psychedelic oceanic environment generated by extended reality technology.

This exhibition once more focuses profound meditation on the knowledge, exoticism and eroticism of Herman Melville’s original text through a post-colonialist lens.  It is seen from the perspective of the whale and the crew of sailors on board the whaling ship, Pequod.

This complex work places Melville’s story in the context of mid-19th-century naval history, namely the transatlantic birth of modern capitalism and mass civil protests.  In this way, the immensity of the ocean becomes a symbol of the unknown.   Wu Tsang’s reflections point to the existence of oblique perspectives, further complicating the idea that any point of view is unique or linear.

Image Credits:

Wu Tsang, Of Whales. 2022. 59th Art Biennial, The Milk of Dreams. Photograph by Matteo de Fina