Benera and Estefan
Blue Ground, 2021 - 2022
3-channel video installation, HD, color, stereo sound, 12 min. 05 sec. vinyl lettering on the floor, variable dimensions
Text and video editing A.Benera A.Estefan, sound: Simina Oprescu, voice Gigi Spelsberg


In a three-channel video setup, three places are brought together: the Namibian desert, the Atlantic Ocean, and a shipyard on the Black Sea coast where the world's first custom-built diamond recovery vessel, the Benguela Gem, was constructed. This ship, commissioned by De Beers Group and named after the Benguela dolphins, began diamond mining off the coast of Namibia in 2022.

From the Black Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, by way of Namibia's desert, distinct geographies and industries interconnect through a common history of extraction. This history is narrated through the voice of a fugitive diamond that has broken free from human hands.





 


Research and documentation: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich.
Comissioned and produced by 39th EVA International 2020-2021, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art
supported by Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart, Solitude Project Cultural Association Bucharest, and Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien.