Submission
DEEP SKIN, the deepest underground art exhibition in history

Northern Ontario, Canada

DEEP SKIN, the deepest underground art exhibition in history, took place at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNOlab), a particle physics research laboratory situated 2100 meters underground in Northern Ontario, Canada.

The lab’s extreme underground location in the Creighton Nickel Mine (the world’s second deepest mine outside of South Africa) is situated so as to shield sensitive experiments from cosmic rays and background radiation, essential for studying subatomic particles such as neutrinos. Overall, the facility has a muon flux of less than 0.27 μ/m² per day. The lab is accessed via the mine’s elevator, which descends in only 2 minutes time. The 2100 meter granitic rock overburden corresponds to a 6010 meter water equivalent and the rapid change in pressure can cause some visitors to experience vertigo and severe otalgia. The ambient rock temperature at this depth is 42 degrees Celsius.

From the elevator, visitors must walk down a 1.8 kilometer drift (mine cavern) in order to reach the lab. The entrance is a transitional region from the dirty mine environment to a ‘CLASS 2000′ clean room laboratory (meaning that it is extremely clean with very low levels of dust). Showers, headgear, lab suits and air showers are mandatory before entering the space. Furthermore, several of the exhibition’s artworks were vacuum-packed in order to comply with the stringent security and cleanliness protocols of the SNOlab.

A virtual tour of the lab is available here.

Organization and documentation by Grégoire Blunt + Emmy Skensved

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.23.43 — Pakui Hardware, LOST HERITAGE, silicone, 45x35cm, 2015. (photographed on the DEAP 3600 detector)

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.24.12 — Pakui Hardware, LOST HERITAGE, silicone, 45x35cm, 2015. (photographed on the DEAP 3600 detector)

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.24.20 — Pakui Hardware, LOST HERITAGE, plaster, resin & silicone, 25x10x12cm, 2015. (photographed on the HALO supernova detector)

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.24.31 — Pakui Hardware, LOST HERITAGE, plaster, resin & silicone, 25x10x12cm, 2015. (photographed on the HALO supernova detector)

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.24.41 — Dorota Gaweda + Egle Kulbokaite, SHE, A SKELETON, cast aluminum & text, 12x3x4cm, 2015

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.24.53 — Dorota Gaweda + Egle Kulbokaite, SHE, A SKELETON, cast aluminum & text, 12x3x4cm, 2015

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.25.03 — Paul Barsch, BIOBCI-CARRIER “JENS” DETACHED, dreadlocks in vacuum bag, 56x56cm, 2015. (photographed in the cube hall)

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-24 um 14.25.28 — Agatha Valkyrie Ice*, LINDA, scent in sample bottle, 8x3x3cm, 2015. (photographed in the refuge)

*Clémence de La Tour du Pin + Dorota Gaweda + Egle Kulbokaite, with the support of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.

Induced by Vietnamese polygonum (natural aldehyde) and cilantro-based growth medium Ai is creating an optimal condition for abstract sex. Ai body is a non-selective membrane of urgency that incorporates whatever. Through a multiplicity of surfaces Ai skin encounters cold, metallic, synthetic epidermal secretions released by natural plant elements. Ai embraces the liquid, the mutable, the ever-flowing weavings that run through Aiselves, evolving rings around Aiselves. Cut from the running flow of life Ai is demanding of taking a line of flight towards destratification – a felt experience of change on a nature-culture continuum.