Bodies of Water. Cartographies of a Liquid Metabolism. Marina Planas

In this project, Marina Planas explores how global transport and consumption affect the oceans, the planet, and all its inhabitants. Drawing on images from the Arxiu del Consorci de les Drassanes Reials i Museu Marítim de Barcelona, the artist creates visual constellations tracing the history of maritime transport from the late nineteenth century to the present. These images also reveal the transformation of coastlines and oceans into spaces increasingly shaped by tourism and consumption.

Planas focuses on ocean acidification, a process largely driven by today’s globalised economic systems. It has profoundly altered marine ecosystems and placed numerous species at risk, while also affecting our own bodies, since we are part of the same interconnected system. Food and the body become central metaphors for considering how environmental damage is absorbed and transformed within us. The sea emerges as a living, generative body that we share with other species. Against the backdrop of the ecological crisis, the work foregrounds the interdependence of human and non-human bodies and articulates a desire for a future grounded in care, reciprocity and collective survival.