The drift of an alien, 2025
INSTALLATION ● CERAMIC TABLEWARE ● PRINTS ● VIDEO ● AR ● DINNER ● PANEL
The Drift of the Alien explores climate change, species migration, and ecological disruption through the story of the lionfish — a striking predator that has rapidly invaded the Mediterranean. Carried through human-made canals and propelled by warming waters, the lionfish arrives unintentionally yet transforms local ecosystems, thriving without natural predators. In its native Indo-Pacific, it was rarely eaten, but in the altered Mediterranean it is now fished and consumed as a method of ecological management.
The installation combines video, sound, and a performative community dinner, inviting visitors to taste the lionfish while hearing its monologue: “I did not plan to arrive here.” The dinner becomes a living, cross-disciplinary gathering where food acts as a medium for dialogue about species movement and shifting ecologies in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The recipes — like ecosystems — function as living archives, remembering what once flourished and adapting to what is now inevitable. Blending poetic storytelling, scientific research, and collective ritual, The Drift of the Alien asks: What does the so-called “alien” reveal about our environmental future, and about ourselves?
