The arts organisation is bringing together artists, scientists, and local communities affected by last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami
Last month, an undersea volcano began to erupt in the South Pacific, with heightened activity building toward a massive explosion that sent a shockwave around the globe – it was even picked up in the UK, some 10,000 miles away – and a plume of smoke 35 miles above the surface of the Earth. Prior to the explosion, the volcano, named Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, could be made out as two small, uninhabitable islands 40 miles north of the Kingdom of Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, merged by a smaller eruption in 2015.
Following the January 15 explosion, a tsunami quickly hit Tongatapu, causing citizens in the capital of Nuku’alofa to flee for their lives as communications were severed and entire villages washed away. Three people were declared dead by the UN amid rescue efforts, while an estimated 80 per cent of the Tongan population is impacted by the eruption and tsunami, as ashfall and saltwater intrusion threaten people’s health, income, and food supplies.
Tsunami warning systems and Tonga’s preparedness for such disasters are said to have limited the death toll, however, say the kingdom’s officials (via the Wall Street Journal). In the eruption’s wake, aid efforts have also brought in funds to help recover from the crisis. One of these efforts is backed by the contemporary art organisation TBA21, in collaboration with the Tongan Olympic Flag Bearer, Pita Taufatofua.
“When it became evident that, due to the rupture of the communication cable caused by the massive explosion, we could not contact the islands directly, we instead contacted Pita Taufatofua,” TBA21 tells Dazed. “He had started his own fundraiser in Australia for the recovery efforts in the island kingdom. It seemed to promise more immediate impact and we wanted to reach out with helping hands.”
TBA21 didn’t only promote the fundraiser (which stands at almost 800,000 AUD at the time of writing), but also opened up its archives, sharing video art from the Danish collective Superflex, which documents a surreal journey to the eruption site with TBA21-Academy in 2018.
“In between the two massive volcanic eruptions that created and now destroyed Hunga Tonga, we travelled with Superflex and a group of scientist and researchers to conduct experiments,” says TBA21. This is now one of the most detailed and extensive sources of information on the area, shared publicly via the arts organisation’s Ocean Archive.
“In the devastating aftermath of the eruption of the underwater volcano, these materials and also Superflex’s film turn into a memento mori,” adds the arts-led organisation. “A reminder of what was lost and damaged.”
In 2020, the organisation also launched TBA21 On St_age, a digital platform for artists, scientists, and activists to share ideas and resources, in response to the changing landscape brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Now, St_age also hosts a call to action for Tonga, bringing artists together with local organisations and international campaigns with plans assemble an “efficient aid package” for the Tongan people. This cross-disciplinary collaboration will, TBA21 hopes, “shift paradigms towards regenerative thinking, which in turn will lead to more sustainable and abundant futures”.
“All of the work we do is artistic research based, process-oriented, long-term, and collaborative,” says Markus Reymann, co-founder and director of TBA21-Academy. “Bringing together artists, Indigenous practitioners, scientists, legal experts, and many others, linking spheres of science, policy, conservation, and education.”
While the current ‘season’ of St_age focuses these efforts on Tonga’s regeneration, TBA21-Academy has a broader goal of addressing worldwide environmental issues, Reymann explains. “I believe for the radical measures needed to slow down the climate crisis, we need cultural responses to inspire communities of care and concern, as much as we need political buy-in for meaningful impact and change.”
Revisit Superflex’s Hunga Tonga here and view selected stills below. You can also donate to the IFRC’s emergency appeal to help the Tongan chapter of the Red Cross meet the immediate and long-term needs of the most vulnerable.