SURVEYS
ONBOARD RESIDENCE
NON-OPERATIONAL ON-BOARD OBJECTS
7 > Feb. 23, 2024
, North Atlantic, container ship Marius
Villa Albertine, Marfret & National Maritime Museum
The container ship Marius is a systemic object. When it is not docked, it is a closed form with no entrance. Everything and everyone—the ship, materials, supplies, people, machinery, containers, and their contents—exists within an autonomous, self-contained space. What the hull contains is a new reality with every departure: the unique physical environment of the voyage that is about to begin.
At odds with the profit-driven dynamics of logistics performance, designer-researcher Mathilde Pellé has chosen to investigate a variety of onboard forms that fall into a category known as “Non-Operational On-Board.” These include personal items that crew members bring with them, invisible objects present in containers, objects in limbo, … Useless to the navigation process, these forms reveal the diversity of actors and intentions embedded in the activity of maritime transport.
In February, in the middle of the North Atlantic, a fragile good-luck bracelet sits alongside half a million jars of mayonnaise. What meanings and absurdities can we discern in these unlikely parallel presences?
As a non-operational crew member, I spent 17 days experiencing the reality of maritime transport—that of the Marius, the cargo it carried, and its crew during that time. I am currently working on the documentary *TONNES*. Drawing on this experience, my aim is to use my work to shed light on one of the invisible logistical arteries of consumerism.