Critical Art — Magdalena Hart | Rain and Rivers

Manglar ( 2024 )

"Mangrove" (translated from Spanish as "Manglar")—scent, tangle, soil, crossroads. The mangrove serves as the transition zone between marine and terrestrial biomes, a meeting point where the forms and sensitivities of water and earth converge. It breathes with the tides, filling and emptying daily, and maintains a delicate balance. Marine animals come here daily to mate, lay eggs, care for their young, and bask in its warmth and libidinal energy.

"Manglar" is a transdisciplinary collective initiative by a group of 7 individuals based in Barcelona, with members from Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Catalonia, who came together during the Humedal residency at Wetlab in 2023. These encounters harmonized into a shared agenda, evolving into an experimental project.

We propose a cycle of high libidinal energy within the group, aiming to create a space for exchanging practices centered on situated sciences, while intensively engaging with Wetlab.

Our approach involves experiencing a set of practices suggested by the group, framed through the lens of "situated sciences." These practices seek to connect with and enchant different worlds, emphasizing the de-universalization of scientific gestures. This entails: first, incorporating the scientist's body as both position and place; second, recognizing and developing methods to engage with more-than-human positions within experimental networks; and third, exploring the relationship between fiction, performativity, and science.

The project's structure begins with radical contamination—blending organisms, cultures, and dirt—and concludes with decontamination, separation, and space cleaning, mirroring a tidal cycle of highs and lows.

Our practices include: Cultures (bacteria, fungi, plants, and symbiotic situations), Multispecies Oracles, Therolinguistic Sciences Committee, Situated Tools, Metamorphosis of Matter, Pause and Rest, and Consortium for Decontamination and/or Sterilization. Our aim is to explore ecologies of practice grounded in play, pleasure, and experimentation, fostering intimacies between species and challenging scientific conventions.

We aim to explore situated science by weaving experiences, tools, and methodologies that question universal ideals in natural knowledge. We seek to develop research strategies where problems and questions emerge from close dialogues with non-human organisms, decentralizing inquiry and broadening discovery horizons to enhance our capacity to listen to these organisms.

Magdalena Hart

Here you will find a collection of my artworks taken forward since 2018.