Watch now: Laure Prouvost and Martha Kirzenbaum on NOWNESS

Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost invites us to experience her aquatic French Pavilion installation Deep See Blue Surrounding You at the 58th Venice Biennale. Crafted in collaboration with the show’s curator Martha Kirszenbaum, the Pavilion is an aqueous subterranean habitat where visitors are challenged on their notions of identity.

Prouvost’s exhibition is inspired by the decentralized nervous system of an octopus. Glass sculptures, sound works, dance, performance and lighting extends through the pavilion in a tentacular fashion. A cross-generational collection of international performers—which includes a magician, singer, rapper and karate practitioner—form part of a fictional film based on a road trip from Grigny, a suburb of Paris, to Venice. Prouvost describes the film at the heart of the installation as “the head of the octopus,” as the performers lead the audience to the exhibition space through the canals of the sinking Italian city.

This film was produced by Nowness, and directed by Joseph Delaney. To read more visit nowness.com