LOST IN TIME. FOUND AT SEA will be presented in different formats, across distinct yet thematically interconnected sections, adapting to the specific hosting venue. The first section, titled UNLIKELY PAIRS, will be displayed at Praça de Campolide from 24th September to 23rd October. The second section, titled SHOWCASE OF CURIOSITIES, will be held at NOVA University from 23rd October to 19th November.
These exhibitions open a dialogue on the discarding of materials throughout history, focusing on the dualities of organic and inorganic, past and present, utility and waste, and exploring the concepts of materiality, use and discard, permanence and pollution. By engaging with artefacts from the early modern period (16th-18th centuries) and contemporary objects, and using plastic as a key example of a polluting and disposable material that often ends its life in oceans and on beaches, the exhibitions aim to question humanity’s long-standing habit of abandoning waste and its environmental consequences. The exhibition is part of the programme developed by NOVA Cultura, which seeks to connect NOVA’s research and strategic priorities with the cultural sector and society at large. Focusing on issues of sustainability and central questions for our time related to pollution, the exhibition will feature several displays both inside and outside NOVA's premises, reinforcing the University's openness to the city. It will also include educational activities for diverse audiences related to its themes.
In SHOWCASE OF CURIOSITIES, a conversation is established around the discarding of materials in human history, examining the organic and inorganic, past and present, utility and waste, and the concepts of permanence and marine pollution. Ocean debris, such as plastic, and the ecological consequences of its abandonment are among today's pressing environmental concerns, seen as a societal problem with planetary impacts. Some of these discarded materials remain in the earth's archive, while others are subject to collection, categorisation (both formal and informal, as in beachcombing), and exhibition (whether private or public). Like these objects, animal remains and traces of various life forms have been central to constructing narratives about the natural history of the oceans and producing knowledge. Objects lost in time thus become finds at sea.
Organization
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
NOVA Cultura
Projecto 4-OCEANS
CHAM / NOVA FCSH
Plasticus Marítimos
Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência