We Are Still Alive, Like Hydrogen and Oxygen

We are still alive, like hydrogen and oxygen is conceived as an ecosystem based on non-anthropocentric forms of discursivity. Through works in video, statistics, performance, writing, installation, activism and sculpture, the project seeks to experiment with methodologies that use material culture as a dialogical ground, combining theory and practice, and fostering transdisciplinary relationships.

The density of vulnerable migrant bodies in an ambiguous geopolitical context is the subject studied by Forensic Oceanography’s work Liquid Traces: The Left-to-Die Boat Case. As indicated by the title, the video reconstructs the case of the “left-to-die boat” case in which 72 migrants were left drifting for a fortnight in the NATO maritime surveillance area during the decisive period of the 2011 war against Libya. By going “against the grain” in their use of surveillance technologies, Forensic Oceanography were able to reconstruct with precision how events unfolded and demonstrate how different actors operating in the Central Mediterranean Sea used overlapping jurisdictions to evade their responsibility for rescuing people in danger. The resulting report formed the basis for a number of legal petitions filed against NATO member states. This work was first commissioned for and exhibited in the exhibition Forensis at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, March 2014.