Future Songs of Fish and People

Comissioned by citizens of the community of Ummanz in the isle Rügen in norther Germany, through the New Comissioners Program, Neuer Auftraggeber this work addresses the current end of coastal fishing in the region and the current dissapearence of biological diversity in the region.

Through a ceremony, a procession, and a choreography of hand woven nets performed inside the shallow estuarial waters of the area, the first part of the project Atlantic Undercurrent Circulation is created in direct exchange with the local community.

Amanda Piña responds to the commission with a threepart concept that connects this seemingly local situation, the diminishment in the fish of the Bodden estuarial Waters  with a global oceanic present.

Future Songs of Fish and People,  brings together international performers and people from the region.                                              The knowledge and labor of the Bodden fishers are honored through a procession.                                                                                 with visual and sonic elements, and a public ceremony. A choreographic sequence of “living sculptures” draws on the movements of corals, microalgae such as Fito plankton, and other largely invisible marine microorganisms, transforming fishing materials into fluid, forms.

Amanda Piña then translates forms and materials from the performance into a permanent sculpture                                                      A  “Web of Memory” for the public space of Ummanz . They serve as a memorial to the event,                                                                   a monument to threatened marine life, and a place for sitting at the coast in contemplation of water.

As a third element, Piña weaves together footage from the performance with images of the Ummanz coastal fishing.                      and its marine ecosystems, and voices of fishers and speculative songs of Eels.  The European eel  – once the “bread fish” of the region –  flowing between the Global South and the Global North tells her story of migration. The video installation  The Song of Eels extends this local story beyond Ummanz