Digital animation film projected on a circular screen. (6 Min.)

Commissioned by: The Age Of… project

Exhibited at: Centre for Contemporary Art Brest (FR) as part of the collective exhibition A Bout de Mer

On Earth, the most diverse example of a symbiotic ecosystem is the Coral Reef. More species variety coexists in Coral Reefs than in the Rain Forest. Spacecoralia is a 3D digital animation film drawing parallels between underwater living organisms and our fantasies of life outer-space. Based on biological studies in collaboration with the I.U.E.M maritime center and research on early underwater imaging, the film speculate on the birth and evolution of a coral-like ecosystems on Mars, which feeds on the remnants of a human astro-botanical experiment. The forms, colours and agencies of the new hybrid species of Spacecoralia are animated using mixed-media techniques, and borrow from the style of early underwater photography and cinéma, particularly the films of Jean Painlevé. In a meaningful reversal of perspective, imagining a scenario for symbiotic life on Mars becomes a mirror to understand the complexity of one of the most endangered life form on Earth: corals reefs.