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“We are in this crazy, unforeseen and incomprehensible situation where we are competing against jellyfish. And they are winning”, says the Australian marine biologist and jellyfish expert Lisa-Ann Gershwin. For at least 670 million years, jellyfish have been floating unchanged through the world’s oceans and almost anything that damages the ecosystem seems to do them good. Overfishing, plastic trash or ocean warming: none of this harms them; instead the spread of jellyfish continues to increase. In collaboration with marine biologists and animal keepers, in win > < win Rimini Protokoll is flipping the view of these creatures around and staging it as a gaze directed back at their observers. What happens when humans and jellyfish compete for the planet’s ecosystem? What species are best prepared for the threat of global warming? Will humanity survive?

The work comprises of a small seated auditorium, with headphones that plays a narrative speech to each individual viewer. The viewer watches a reflective circular screen in front of them which reveals itself to be a jellyfish tank. The narrator in the headset discusses about the longevity of a jellyfish. Regarding the simplicity of the jellyfish having a small and simple system, we are forced to contemplate on the fragility of human existence and to reflect on the fact that jellyfish will probably outlive humanity. We are forced to reflect on our impact on the the world and ecosystems in the small time that we have on this world. This conclusion is formed when the screen reveals another set of people through the glass/tank having the same experience (listening to the same narration) but in a different timeline, being compared to the jellyfish.

I like this work because its very clever, in the way that it uses other humans (viewer) as part of the work to make the comparison with the jellyfish. It confronts us to reflect on our temporary existence whilst exploring the role of the viewer. The viewer becomes part of the work. Not only do they become part of the work, but the confrontation is moving as it is with other humans that are currently the other part of the room. The installation works by making us confront other humans.

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