Pole der Unzugänglichkeit

About

Many names have been given to the remotest place in the ocean: “South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area” (SPOUA) defines it as furthest away from inhabited land. “Spacecraft Cemetery” describes the region as the designated crashing site for space debris. “Point Nemo” (Nemo=Nobody) suggests the point in “no man*’s land” and “Pole of Inaccessibility” refers to the location where the geographical criteria for physical inaccessibility apply.

These designations convey narratives that neither take into account non-human existences nor the destructive impact of human life on oceanic ecosystems. In this context “inaccessibility” implies a claim to potential access or (colonial) enclosure in the future.

For the exhibition the pacific Pole of Inaccessibility functions as a starting point to examine the state and anthropocentric treatment of supposedly unreachable places in the ocean and beyond.

Pole der Unzugänglichkeit is the second part of the exhibition series Schwindel – conceptions of (extra)terrestrial worlds between reality and fiction.