SURVEYS
ONBOARD RESIDENCE
NON-OPERATIONAL ON-BOARD
07 > 23.02 2024 - North Atlantic, container ship Marius
Villa Albertine, Compagnie Marfret & the Musée National de la Marine
The Marius container ship is a system object. When it's not docked, it's a closed form, with no entrance. Everything, everyone (ship, materials, stores, people, machines, containers and their contents, etc.) is in an autonomous closed space. What the hull contains is a new deal at each departure, the unprecedented material environment of the navigation that is about to begin.
Out of step with the profitability dynamic of logistical performance, designer-researcher Mathilde Pellé has chosen to investigate a variety of on-board forms that fall into a category known as 'Non-Operational On-Board'. There are the personal objects that crew members take with them, the invisible objects present in containers, objects on standby, etc. Useless in the navigation process, these forms tell of the plurality of actors and intentions that are deposited in the activity of maritime transport.
In February, in the middle of the North Atlantic, a fragile lucky charm bracelet rubs shoulders with half a million mayonnaise jars. What sense or nonsense can we make of these unlikely parallel presences?
As a non-operational human being, for 17 days I had access to the reality of maritime transport, that of the Marius, the goods it contained and its crew at the time. I'm currently working on a documentary based on shots taken on board. In the light of this experience, I'd like to use my work to shed light on one of the invisible logistical arteries of consumption.