My style is mainly made of a very thoughtful aesthetics regarding colors and shapes. I see it as an inheritance from my academic background as a graphic designer.

 

As a kid, artist Jose Javier dreamt of becoming a famous professional football player. Born in Donostia (San Sebastian) in the Spanish Basque Country, Jose, known as Yosigo, was in love with the local Real Sociedad Football Team. Today, despite the boredom of the endless hours spent in front of a screen, Yosigo became one of Spain’s most interesting photographers. « I started in the world of photography by chance, » he confesses. «  My style is mainly made of a very thoughtful aesthetics regarding colors and shapes. Of course, I see it as an inheritance from my academic background as a graphic designer. »

When he’s asked to describe his creative identity and signature both as a graphic designer and photographer, Yosigo puts it simple. « I like very clean and well-composed images. » Composition and the use of space seem to be at the heart of the his work. « It’s simply something that comes naturally. »

Umbrellas, beach chairs, swimmers, buoys, towels and crowded beaches looking like small dots in the sand… Through soft pastel colors, Yosigo’s beach-related visuals look like David Hockney’s serial paintings of swimming pools. Gaining height, the basque photographer reminds us that the ocean and the sea have always been a central element in his life. «Seeing the horizon deeply calms me down. It’s like being at home even when I’m away.»

Combining his personal work with professional missions, Yosigo can be somehow defined as obsessed with symmetry. « My favorite photographer and my most inspirational artist is Stephen Shore. » Renowned for his banal shots of the american ordinary scenes of everyday life, Shore displays an immersive photography. As does the Spanish artist.

Now based in Barcelona, Yosigo shares his studio with artists, graphic designers and like-minded photographers. « I love my studio and the people I share it with. We renovated it recently and today, the studio looks super white, there is plenty of light, and it is full of plants. And it’s almost always messy » he says. « I am surrounded by creative people and they represent a great influence on my work today. »

Follow Yosigo’s work on his website.

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There is a piece of boat in the middle of the room, a car bonnet in a corner, a motorcycle gaz tank, some wooden and steel boards, crumpled maps and pieces of plastic. »I’ve always been strongly influenced by car culture and the nautical world. I usually work with objects that had a first life, generally objects from the 70s.«

In his Saint-Chamond- 270m2 workshop, French artist Maxime Lamarche piles up objects, combines genres and mixes inspirations. »I like this kind of items that embody the fantasy of a whole generation. I modify them, hybridize them and combine them. My final goals is to modify their primary function and be able to give them a second life through an art quest.«

As shown in the »Austin’s Island« art installation, Maxime Lamarche questions the duration of our illusions and fantasies. »The boat-mountain« is installed on two feet, reminding the base used for models, and giving the feeling that the boat became useless for most of practical purposes.« Defined as a hybrid between a speed boat – a Fletcher 155 Arrowsport – and a resin model of a mountain, the two elements combined reveal a different myth.

The french artist constantly explores the confrontation between a moving object, like cars and boats, and an unchanging landscape. »In my work, there is the recurring fact of reusing symbolic objects from the leisure culture that developed itself during the Glorious Thirty until 1973,« Maxime says. »We’ve seen boats, motorcycles and cars running through this last century. Whether it be the Stock Market crash of 1929 or the 2008 crisis, this »leisure society« carries the powerful notion of crisis.«

Sometimes exaggerated to the point of absurdity, Lamarche’s art explorations are able to perform into the real world and meet people’s reactions. »Submerged, emerged or drowning sculptures… we never know if these objects are eventually victorious or not.«

Follow Maxime Lamarche’s work on his website.

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Described as an exploration of »mutability—of identity and gender, natural landscapes and phenomena, language and meaning«, Roni Horn’s sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, books, and installations reveal moments of shift.

Her illuminating and translucent metal and cast-glass sculptures appear as pools of water. While the glossy flat surface invites the viewer to look inside, it definitely encourages interpretation. Roni understands water as « a form of perpetual relation, not so much a substance but a thing whose identity is based on its relation to other things. Most of what you’re looking at when you look at water is light reflection. »

Over the years, Roni Horn has been exploring key themes like gender, identity and androgyny – the mutability of her own identity. Whether it be pigments drawings made from powdered pigment, turpentine and varnish, portraiture, photographic installations or sculptures, the materials are at the heart of her art approach. 

In the 1970s, the artist traveled to Iceland by motorcycle and this trip had a major impact on her work and influenced her practice. In 1982, the artist chose to live solo in a lighthouse in Iceland for two months. Similar to her country studio in upstate New York, Horn has always been fascinated by isolation. »We get a lot of wind and snow, and these wide eaves really protect me and the building as well.« she said in an interview with Wallpaper. »When I’ve had the choice [in my life] to make, it was always toward the solitary – being out in the wild with complete psychological freedom.«

As an ode to to Iceland and water, New York-based multidisciplinary artist started to produce cast-glass sculptures in the mid-1990s. »The seductively glossy surface invites the viewer to gaze into the optically pristine interior of the sculpture, as if looking down on a body of water through an aqueous oculus« explains Hauser and Wirth. Repetition and doubling remain central to her work. »On a physical level, is there anything more redundant than water?« asks The Flag Art Foundation.

Throughout Roni Horn’s work, from Iceland’s hot springs to the murky Thames, her relationship and associations with water has been an essential element. In 2012,during her stay at the one-bedroom installation ‘A Room for London’, October 2012; a riverboat resting on top of the roof of Queen Elizabeth Hall by the river Thames, Roni Horn wrote »Saying Water«. Here’s an extract said in a powerful 40-minute monologue. »When you talk of the water, are you talking of yourself, or the weather?« The river surrounds you, and takes you away. Dark water makes you invisible, while also relieving you from the demands of sight. Thinking about water, is thinking about the future. And importantly, water is sexy. Because it is powerful, vulnerable, energetic, fragile. Near it. Immersed in it. Deeper into it. Washing all over me.«

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March 6th, 2014. 72 degrees south, speed 5 knots, -28 or less degrees celsius with wind chill.

By Nico Edwards.

It is dark and stormy, with snow blowing straight at us and we are driving blindly into pack ice. The waves seem to be growing dramatically every minute. The guy at the bow is shouting instructions and warnings back to another guy at the halfway mark, who runs across the icy deck towards the helm to tell us to go “hard to starboard!” Just as we begin turning, we see a piece of ice the size of a school bus passing along our port side, grinding along the hull as it goes. Lots of warning….and to top that off, we have to motor ahead at 3+ knots if we even remotely hope to be able to control the direction of the boat. Infinity weighs 160 tons, so even going slow it takes forever to stop. Slamming into an iceberg is like slamming into solid stone, at any speed something has to give, and it’s not likely to be the stone. The quantity of ice in the surrounding water is increasing rapidly, along with the size. Andy, our Scottish watch leader, keeps adding speed, as we lose the ability to hold course. All the while massive chunks slide past on either side. In this sobering atmosphere, Andy starts talking about “real adventure” and how hard it is to find these days.

Having lived on the high seas for the last 20 odd years, I can’t think of anyone I would rather have leading this madness then Capt. Clem. Though as he gets to the helm, even he seems a bit unnerved by the situation. “Why didn’t anyone get me fucking sooner! …I can’t hear you clearly! None of this American nuzzle buzzle. There’s a solid wall of pack ice dead ahead! Can’t you see that! That’s not water, that’s ice!” The full force of the storm has yet to arrive and we’re still 30 miles off from our intended anchorage.

As I make my way on deck the next day, I find the situation has deteriorated further. Our Canadian Electrician, David Bowie (real name) is at the bow screaming back to the helm “hard to port!” Just as a real hull cruncher passes with not much more than two feet to spare. All around us is thick pancake ice and off in the distance is a sheer wall of pack ice that we seem to be heading directly for. We soon discover that the anchorage area is socked in with ice and we have no place that is protected to anchor. It is at this point that the full force of the storm arrives. Not the 20 knot peripheral system we were hoping for at this latitude, but an 80+ knot force 12 hurricane of ice with wind gusts exceeding 160 kpm. We have no choice but to ride it out on the open ocean, but we have to quickly get away from the large fields of ice.  

It is so cold that ocean spray turns to shards of ice before it hits the deck. The waves have grown to mountains of water exceeding 18 meters tall from trough to crest. An interesting site few of us have ever seen, they are breaking on themselves in the open ocean, as if they were being pushed up by a reef or the shore. Going on watch is a sobering experience. It’s less of an active navigating experience and more of what one crew member termed “riding space mountain for three hours”.

It’s so cold, that our diesel has begun to freeze in the tanks, and from the white smoke the engine is emitting, we suspect our fuel is contaminated with seawater. We are not sure how the water made its way into our tanks, but our engine is cutting in and out and were losing fuel injectors we have no replacements for. 

To make matters worse, the waves crashing onto the bow are so strong they have bent back the steel anchor plate, allowing water into the forward anchor locker. Infinity has taken on so much water, her bow is riding noticeable lower in the water, and she’s digging ever deeper into the waves.

The engine throttled up full, we are lurching in horrible, skyward-thrusting, gut-wrenching circles. Due to the power of the wind though, we seem to be going backwards. We have to harness ourselves in and bear-hug something solid, or we’ll be ripped off the helm. If we go overboard, we’ll be dead before the person next to us realizes we are gone. 

Every couple of hours, we are forced to shut off the engine so we can clean out the rapidly clogging fuel filter. It is during one of these cleanings, the boat drifting at the mercy of the wind and waves, giant mountains of white capped waves cresting and breaking on and around us, that we spot a large iceberg, directly in the path the waves are taking us.  Fuel filter quickly back in place, and we are trying to restart the engine, before we get dashed against the ice. The starter turns and turns, but the engine refuses to catch. For what feels like forever, it just turns, straining the battery. It is in this moment, that we feel the most alive. This is what we are truly after. As we hang on for our lives, in the middle of the most dramatic storm we have ever seen, with front row seats to one of the greatest natural spectacles on earth, we have collectively reached a state of transcendent ecstasy. We’re in a giant universe of forces that are out of our control and we’re feeling very small. 

The engine catches and we apply the throttle, holding our breaths as the boat slowly increases the distance between us and the berg. We will ride space mountain for two days.

Follow their adventures online.

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On Thursday, the 11th of August, we celebrated the official inauguration of Panthalassa. In the words of Panthalassa founder Sergio Penzo, »Panthalassa is the result of all we believe in, but most importantly, it is a platform made possible by the many beautiful souls we’ve met on this journey.« 

Panthalassa is the literal translation from Greek meaning »universal sea«, also known as the Panthalassic Ocean. It was the vast global ancestral Pacific ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea.  The idea behind this very first eponymous exhibition was to gather each ocean in one space.  So through a collective exhibition, we chose to introduce the Panthalassa Society, our global network of contributors, writers, painters, and artists: The Australian underwater photographer Mark Tipple, Maltese photographer Kurt Arrigo, Chilean illustrator Daniela Garreton, French cinematographer Pierre David,  photographer Sarah Arnould, Glasser Tristan Mausse, Shaper & Acne Designer Robin Kegel, cinematographer Douglas Guillot, photographer and writer Elisa Routa, and NY-based artist Zaria Forman.   

One of the evening highlights was NYC-based artist and TED speaker Zaria Forman who delighted everyone with a beautiful speech about her work addressing the environment, conveying the urgency of climate change. »My career is dedicated to translating and illuminating scientists’ warnings and statistics into an accessible medium that people can connect with, on a level that might be deeper than scientific facts can penetrate.« said the american artist about her personal engagement in protecting the environment and playing a part in saving our planet. »I choose to convey the beauty, as opposed to the devastation. If people can experience the sublimity of these landscapes, perhaps they will be inspired to protect and preserve them.«

Our surfboard »Cephalopoard« made in collaboration with shaper Robin Kegel, using squid ink as a pigment, as well as a selection of 15 artworks and Zaria Forman’s large scale pastel drawing can be seen at Providence Guéthary, in France, until the 24th of August. And who knows, if you are lucky you might even bump into actor Vincent Cassel who is spending some days in Guéthary and brought a touch of je-nes-sais-quoi to our party.  

Photos by Sarah Arnould/ Panthalassa

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Czech artist Jakub Geltner has been installing sculptures of surveillance cameras into public spaces since 2011.

His first installation was in the centre of Prague amid the urban architecture. Since then, his sculptures have been in a waterfront, a former elementary school, and in other popular public sites such as facades of a church, basilica or palace. Geltner tends to draw attention to the excessive presence of technological equipment and surveillance devices in our culture and society. His work seems to be a criticism of such a modern invasion. 

With his recent Nest Project, the Prague-based artist has installed a dozen security cameras on the seaside. Presented for the 2015 edition of Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus, Denmark, this latest work shows originality with a grouping of technological systems placed within nature, attached to ocean rocks rather than on contemporary buildings or in an architectural environment. 

In this sculpture, Geltner confronts two opposite worlds – a natural landscape led by solitude and well-being, and a world ruled by surveillance and supervision, where cameras intrude into people’s privacy. For a few years now, Geltner has intervened in public places and galleries, bringing his own interpretation of artificially-affected environments.

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The “Infinite Bridge” was built by Gjøde & Povlsgaard Arkitekter  in Aarhus, Denmark, as part of the “Sculpture by the Sea” festival. The festival, is Denmark’s biggest and most unique outdoor sculpture exhibition. This year »The Infinite Bridge« was added along the scenic coast line of Aarhus. According to the architects»the sculpture references the city’s history as a steamship port”.  It has been built in the exact site where a historical jetty was demolished. Measuring about 60 metres in diameter, it stands mostly over the azure waters of the bay. “Visitors get the opportunity to take time to immerse themselves in nature and contemplate it from new, usually inaccessible spots.” said the team at Gjøde & Povlsgaard Architects.

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