An Ocean of Memory is a computer generated video that employs fluid simulation algorithms. We were inspired by the navy in art history to produce this representation of the sea which is given as a landscape but in which arise contemporary political questions, generally absent from this pictorial tradition. A hyperrealistic virtual sea sees human figures emerge among the waves which rise up for a moment before returning to their liquid form by collapsing. It is about making visible in a symbolic way the migrants who perished at sea through these ghostly forms, those whose names we do not know, those who are forgotten, invisible. The work is a way of questioning the visibility frameworks of what makes a life, echoing the work of Judith Butler on  the differential perception of lost lives.

This project was designed for the 4th International Biennale of Casablanca (2018).