“With ‘The Wailers‘ we decided to do a work related to two contexts:
First, the sculpture exhibition itself. Second, the situation of whales continuously being killed in seas in Denmarks territory. We aimed to handle both contexts with subtlety and decided to create ‘sculptures‘ that were only visible at scarse moments.“
Nicolas Vionnet & Wouter Sibum
The Wailers
2015
air nozzles, air compressor, air hoses, control panel, floating bodies, anchoring systems
dimensions variable
Courtesy the artists and Sculpture by the sea, Denmark
Scupture by the Sea
4th Aarhus Biennial exhibition
June 5 - July 5, 2015
Aarhus (DEN)
Nicolas Vionnet and Wouter Sibum often deliberately design their works for a specific location. This was also the case at the Sculpture Biennale “Sculpture by the Sea" 2015 in Aarhus, Denmark. The executed project consisted of 3 water fountains that threw water into the air at irregular intervals. The aim of the fountains was to imitate real whale fountains and to create temporary water sculptures that were only visible for a short time in addition to the many permanently installed objects.
The background to the intervention was the Grindadráp. Grindadráp is the local name for a yearly event that sees the people of the Faroe Islands, a self-governing archipelago under Denmark, hunt long-finned pilot whales as well as other species of cetaceans such as bottlenose dolphins, white-sided dolphins and Risso’s dolphins.
This project was made possible by the kind support of Ry Pool Vandteknik and Sculpture by the Sea Denmark.