Galleria Franco Noero is pleased to announce BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, the fifth solo exhibition by Henrik Håkansson in Torino, hosted in the In Residence spaces of the gallery in Via Mottalciata.

Henrik Håkansson records fragments of natural cycles and recreates them in exhibition contexts, encouraging humans to become more receptive to the various living beings that coexist in their environments. Engaging with a vast array of species, and often working site-specifically, Håkansson consistently utilises scientific apparatus—surveillance cameras, recording devices, and computer programs which analyse acoustic and motor activity—resulting in artworks which are simultaneously research experiments.

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, is a new film commissioned by the Taipei Biennial 2018 and produced in collaboration with the Low Altitude Experimental Station of Taiwan’s Endemic Species Research Institute in Wushinkeng, 2 hours’ drive from Taipei. The site is one of three Experimental Stations, at low, medium and high altitudes, whose vast cooperative conservation programmes aim to preserve all endemic organisms in Taiwan.

For the duration of 2018 Håkansson studied Taiwanese moths, which comprise just over 4,000 known species, including the Atlas Moth—the largest moth or butterfly in the world, with a wingspan reaching 30 centimeters. In Wushinkeng, the artist worked with local moth expert Hsu Huan Chih to attract these night-flying insects into a makeshift open-air theatre set. Drawn in using mercury lights, these insect-actors are covertly filmed against a white backdrop, appearing like shadow puppets; this midnight play is set to a sharp soundscape of bat ultrasound signals, which the artist has transformed into audible frequencies.

The video installation, BLINDED BY THE LIGHT was part of the 11th Taipei Biennale, Post-Nature — A Museum as an Ecosystem, curated by Francesco Manacorda and Mali Wu.