Daniel Steegmann Mangrané: Drench

Time: museum hours

Admission: with museum entrance

This exhibition extends beyond the festival dates. It is on view from March 25th – June 15th.

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (1977, Barcelona, Spain) creates drawings, photographs, collages, installations, and videos which explore the entanglements between humanity and the environment. Working across geographies and mediums, his work takes a networked approach, in which he often pushes the boundaries of distinction between ecologies, humans and nonhuman creatures, while considering how technology mediates gazes. Interested in the history of structural cinema as it relates to duration and perception, he creates projections and cinematic loops, which connect with an investigation of forests. 

Drench (2024) is a video presenting the ghostly image of an eye seen underwater surrounded by tadpoles. The work is from an ongoing series Steegmann Mangrané has shot at the Tijuca National Park, a Mata Atlântica rainforest in Rio de Janeiro. Once almost entirely depleted, in the mid-19th century the Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II nationalized the land and had a group of enslaved men replant the rainforest in what was probably one of the pioneering governmental ecological actions worldwide. Once almost entirely cut down, Tijuca still hosts some trees older than 600 years. Those giants were already in place when the Portuguese first arrived and have since witnessed, in its entirety, the violent process of colonization.  

Photo: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Drench, 2024