Emilija Škarnulytė: Æqualia

Æqualia is a new immersive installation from Lithuanian-born artist Emilija Škarnulytė, co-commissioned by Canal Projects and the 14th Gwangju Biennale.

In this piece, Škarnulytė swims through the Encontro das Águas in Manaus, Brazil as a mermaid called “Æqualia.” The Encontro das Águas is the confluence where the Rio Solimões and Rio Negro give birth to the Amazon River.

Rio Solimões’ milky white waters, originating in glacial melt, turbid with suspended and nutrient-rich silts and clays from the High Andes, meets the heavy, black flow of the Rio Negro, dark with the decay of lowland rainforests, warm and hypoxic. The stark difference in temperature and composition causes the two rivers to remain distinct in color, temperature, and chemical profile for a six-kilometer stretch, before finally merging.

The rivers’ fluid instability is the result of differences in velocity and viscosity. They come together in fractal swirls along their meeting points– a similar phenomenon can be seen in other diverse and dynamic environments, ranging from the Red Spot of Jupiter to fluctus cloud formations, to the curls of a thin layer of oil on top of a simmering pot of water. In Æqualia these fractal swirls build and accelerate until the two streams become one.

The river basin is home to the pink Amazon River dolphins (Inia geoffrensis geoffrensis), locally known as botos. The dolphins use their honed sense of echolocation to navigate both the cooler waters of Rio Solimões and the warm, opaque waters of Rio Negro, moving between the two with ease. Swimming alongside the botos, Škarnulytė embodies the mermaid Æqualia—a chimera figure—existing at the intersection of multiple realms. She seamlessly blurs the boundaries between the human, the nonhuman, and the transcendental, melding scientific and mythological elements into a singular hybrid and vibrant force.

By October 2023, within a year of completing the filming of Æqualia, the Encontro das Águas ran dry due to excessive droughts leading to the mass dying-off of the botos. Embodied as a mermaid—half fish, half person—Škarnulytė unveils the repercussions of human hubris. Through her incarnation, she presents visions extending beyond the perceptual limits of our species, urging reflection on the consequences of our actions.

Continuing its commitment to supporting artist projects that allow audiences to reflect on the visual and material consequences of globalization and its extractive economies, Canal Projects will organize public programs in partnership with the More Than Human Rights (MOTH) Project at New York University to shed additional light on the sites and subjects of Škarnulytė’s exhibition. This collaboration will bring in expert voices from the Amazon and continue to create spaces for collaborative knowledge production and the promotion of environmental justice.

Location: The Meeting of Waters, Rio Solimões and Rio Negro, in Manaus, Brazil (3°8′12″S 59°54′17″W). Images courtesy of Mirror Matter Productions, Emilija Škarnulytė 2023.

Special thanks to the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Lithuanian Council for Culture, OCA: Office for Contemporary Art Norway, and The Norwegian Consulate General in New York for additional exhibition support.