An international group exhibition which deals with the invisible economics linked to the sea. With their works, world-respected artists deal with unusual and radical phenomena, from strange online shops to the empires of amateur pornography and other golden coasts.

In the geographical sense, Europe is a maritime continent: considering the ratio of the length of the coast to the total land surface, Europe has more contact with the sea than any other continent. For Rijeka, the port, as well as the sea, is not only a place of loading and unloading or the arrivals and departures of boats. The port is the heart of the city and symbolically important for the identity of the city. This is why the sea, i.e. new forms of work and economy which are connected to the sea, is extremely important for both Rijeka and Europe.

The Sea is Glowing exhibition focuses primarily on new invisible economies that are inextricably linked to the sea, such as the exploration of oil and ores in the depths of the sea, the establishment of offshore tax havens on the coasts and the launch of libertarian start-ups in self-sufficient colonies which float in international waters. All of the mentioned activities are part of the new economies which include new forms of work (such as care and welfare) or new forms of capital circulation (such as free ports). Considering the (occasional) specificity of their tax models, port cities such as Rijeka are very important for such types of economies. The exhibition brings together the works of artists who investigate unusual Amazon shops, the increasingly present outsourcing of healthcare, “the black chimneys” and deep-sea mining, the hidden offshore havens, the dark empires of amateur pornography and other golden coasts.

The exhibition presents the works of 15 European and global artists and groups: Aram Bartholl (DE), Ursula Biemann (CH), DISNOVATION.ORG (FR/PL), Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman / Daniel Keller (US), Steffen Köhn (DE), Lawrence Lek (GB), Rebecca Moss (GB), Jenny Odell (US), Elisa Giardina Papa (IT), Lisa Rave (DE), Marie Reinert (FR), Tabita Rezaire (GF), RYBN (FR), Sebastian Schmieg (DE), and Hito Steyerl (DE).

The curator of the exhibition is Inke Arns (DE), famous for her work in media art. She is the artistic director of the Dortmund Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) organisation and the curator of numerous international exhibitions that have been shown around Europe and the world – from Berlin, Glasgow and Warsaw, from Ljubljana and Nova Sad, all the way to Moscow, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong.