Lars Jan

HOLOSCENES is a collection of multi-format artworks that manifest states of drowning — both in water and the larger systems of our own devising — in order to directly connect the short-term, everyday behaviors of individuals to the long-term patterns driving global climate change. Enacting simple everyday behaviors, the subjects wear pedestrian clothing and handle iconic objects — a hose, telephone, chopsticks — while adapting to their repeatedly flooding environment. Inhabited by a single performer at any one time, the aquarium is animated by a powerful custom hydraulic system that pumps up to 15 tons of water in and out in less than a minute, creating a series of mini-floods to which the performers must adapt.

Featuring an aquarium-like sculpture sited in public space, standing thirteen feet tall and viewable from 360 degrees, Holoscenes translates scientific investigation into visual and visceral public performances that challenge our personal and collective capacities for long-term thinking and empathy.

Lars Jan is a director, visual artist, writer, and founder of Early Morning Opera, a genre-bending performance + art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience. Jan’s original works — including Holoscenes, The Institute of Memory (TIMe), and Abacus — have been presented by the Whitney Museum, Sundance Film Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, Under the Radar Festival, REDCAT, Hammer Museum, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art TBA Festival, ICA Boston, EMPAC, Toronto Nuit Blanche Festival, London’s Burning, NYU Abu Dhabi, and Times Square Arts among others. He is the son of émigrés from Afghanistan and Poland, on faculty at CalArts, and a TED Senior Fellow.