TEA Tenerife Arts Space is screening ‘Beyond the Current’, a documentary by filmmaker Ayoze O’Shanahan, based on a project by Canarian artist Pedro Déniz, this Wednesday, 31 May, at 19:00.
This work is a journey through the invisible links that exist between oceanic regions due to ocean currents. Admission to see this film is free until full capacity is reached. The curator of Film and Video at TEA, Emilio Ramal, will present this event accompanied by Ayoze O’Shanahan and Pedro Déniz, and after the screening of the film there will be a round table discussion with those responsible for this project.
‘Beyond the current’ traces the lines of the sea currents as primitive social networks that we reach using one of the most basic means of human communication, a bottle, a message and the ocean. The film reflects the importance of chance in our lives, of the need to reach out and draw others to us.
In August 1998, two miles offshore from the Orchilla Lighthouse (El Hierro, Canary Islands), a sporadic ‘postman’ throws 105 bottles into the sea, each with a different message and purpose, by 84 artists from all over the world. A work was inaugurated that begins when the bottles embark on their journey to an uncertain destination, destinations that are discovered when the ‘postman’ and the documentary filmmaker embark on an adventure to locate and meet the anonymous people who responded.
The sea becomes the vehicle of communication, of encounter and crossbreeding. The viewer will be part of the search of our protagonists by land, sea and air in this road-movie that pursues the real treasure hidden in the works, the findings that are reported over 24 years. Beyond the Current is the tale of a journey through time where the ocean currents sweep us into the unknown, to the other shore of those who find the works and give them new meaning.
Ayoze O’Shanahan (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1978) has a degree in Journalism from the University of Wales (UK). A specialist in Communication and Armed Conflict from the Complutense University of Madrid, he studied Filmmaking and Scriptwriting at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba). He started as a journalist in La Provincia and as a scriptwriter he worked in Antena 3 and Media Pro (TV Canaria). As a producer, director and scriptwriter of documentaries, he has produced La isla afortunada (2012), La maldición, el milagro y el burro (2011, DOCTV Latin America Award), La historia que no contaron (2009), La muerte no tiene amigo (2006) and La aventura del tabaco (2004).
In 2017, Ayoze O’Shanahan created, produced and directed with Looking for Livingstone, a TV series and a feature-length documentary for the Olympic Broadcast System called Africa Cycling Revolution. At the end of 2019 he reactivated Siroco Factory S.L.
Pedro Déniz (Santa Brígida, 1964) is an interdisciplinary artist who has developed works and experiences ranging from objects to installations, from photography to video, cultivating action, performance, visual poetry and graphic design.