During March 2016  Dorota Walentynowicz, from Gdansk, Poland,  was working at ResidenceSEA on her new project called “Unveiling a Parallel”. The project is inspired by a 19th century feminist science fiction novel and investigates the processes of crafting our knowledge about Mars and fantasies about possible life on it.

Visit the artist website: www.dobrze.nl

“Unveiling a Parallel” Synopsis: In David Bowie’s song, Mars is a promise of a far greater life somewhere, which is followed by the bitter disappointment, that we don’t have access to it. The video installation “Unveiling a Parallel” is not only that, but also a visual study of human fantasies about the planet Mars, seen through social history, contemporary media and the fetish of science.

The project has three parts:
1. a theatrical scene of feminist 19th century utopia presenting Mars as the desired parallel better world
2. a study of optical instruments and video technology used historically to imagine and fantasize about Mars and also contemporary technology to observe, measure and scan its surface
3. a  para-documentary narration about the mineral structure of the “red planet”, the geological findings and a material sample analysis.

Photos by Vasilis Flouris