Over a dark metal structure, a soft flow of latex, natural pigments and beeswax mix to create a topographic map. The shapes are reminiscent of the bees’ foraging territory.

‘Words and rocks contain a language that follows a syntax of splits and ruptures.’ (Smithson, the Collected Writings – the Dying Language). ‘Territorial Flow’, latex, natural pigments and beeswax. photo© Silvia Cappellari

‘Variation Games’ (video, 12:25) and ‘Territorial Flow’ (soft sculpture) at iMAL (Woven by Nature) and at Pilar (Sensorial Skins). photo© AnneMarie Maes and Silvia Cappellari

‘Nature is an infinite sphere, whose centre is everywhere and whose limits are nowhere.’ (Smithson, Pascal).

Territorial Flow (soft sculpture, 2021) + Variation Games (2017-2018 – video, account of 1 year intensive bee monitoring – 12’25”) ::::
Variation Games are games where the set of rules is constantly adapted by the players.
The video ‘Variation Games’ is a condensed edit of a year-long audiovisual observation of the behaviour of a honeybee colony. The recordings are made with an infrared camera and contact microphones inside the beehive. The images demonstrate and reveal decision-making, networking, collaboration and collective intelligence. The soundtrack is based upon recordings made in the beehive.
This is not a simple documentation video. Variation Games expresses an aesthetics that is reminiscent of expressionist cinema, in a frenzy that communicates the heat and the vibrations of the colony life.