Exhibition: As We Used to Float

As We Used to Float
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany

27 September 2018 – 08 April 2019

Installation view: As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany, 2018, Image by Jens Ziehe
Installation view: As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany, 2018, Image by Jens Ziehe
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, 2018 - Installation view: As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany, 2018, Image by Jens Ziehe
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and Everywhere, 2018 - Installation view: As We Used to Float, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany, 2018, Image by Jens Ziehe

As the recipient of the GASAG Art Prize 2018, Julian Charrière created a multimedia spatial installation for the Berlinische Galerie that takes visitors underwater in the Pacific Ocean.

Seventy years after the United States began testing thermonuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll, Julian Charrière set off on an expedition to an area rendered permanently uninhabitable for human life as a result of the environmental contamination. As We Used to Float is a physical, three-dimensional experience that reveals the legacy of those atomic tests both above and below sea level. These unintentional monuments symbolise the interaction between anthropogenic and natural transformations. For Julian Charrière, they also mark the point in history when humans became one of the biggest factors influencing biological, geological and atmospheric processes on Earth.