A photographic cabinet de curiosités of the sea

The workshop aims to develop a cabinet de curiosités of the sea composed of photographs and images of different marine objects. It will depart from the scientific collection of the Musée L in Louvain-la-Neuve and specifically from a visit to the cabinet on its first floor, which displays among others fossils, corals, and glass slides, linked to the university's teaching and research activities. After a presentation of the wunderkammer concept and some contemporary art case studies engaged with the concept, a dialogue will be developped with the participants of the workshop. Each participant is asked to bring one to three images related to the sea or to marine objects. Together with images from the Musée L collection and others gathered along the Belgian beaches, those will compose a collective cabinet that incorporates the territory both as a cultural and scientific representation, and as an inhabited space. Participants will thus be asked to re-assemble the cabinet images into different constellations. The workshop aims to reflect critically on the cabinet as an exhibition form and, by creating a wunderkammer made of images rather than physical objects, to investigate the role images can perform in the contemporary.

The workshop will be in English.

To register, please contact by March 25th Nicoletta Grillo at nicoletta.grillo@polimi.it