Being Coral

Come below the ocean surface as documentary filmmaker and video artist Maja Friis creates an intimate, moving, and aesthetic encounter with the disappearing coral reefs of the planet.

Using macro optics and in collaboration with coral researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Friis showcases the tiny creatures on a grand scale through individual video portraits. The beauty of the corals is portrayed in close interplay with their silent decay, offering a sensory experience of the seriousness of climate change.

About the artist

Maja Friis is a documentary filmmaker and video artist. Her artistic practice explores the sensitivity, transformations, life, and non-life of nature with the vision of making research tangible and awakening climate awareness in the audience.

Other contributors

The research team that has contributed to the development of the project is led by professor of Marine Biology at the University of Copenhagen, Michael Kühl.

The creative team behind the exhibition is composed of Maja Friis as well as Audio-visual Installation Designer Nikolaj Dinesen and Project Coordinator Sofie Mønster.

The exhibition is supported by Statens Kunstfond.