French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière’s (born 1987) work in Second Suns investigates the postnuclear landscapes and architecture of the Bikini Atoll and Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan―respectively American and Soviet nuclear testing sites. This investigation comprises photographs, sculpture and video works, as well as expedition documentation.
Straddling the genres of travelogue and critical essay, As We Used to Float explores Bikini Atoll as a space of fantasy and trauma. Situated in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean, between 1946 and 1958 ist ‚paradise’ islands were subjected to twenty-three of the most powerful explosions in history – during Operation Crossroads, the United States nuclear testing program. Since then, their fate has been largely ignored. While toggling between a personal account of a sea journey, above and below water, and a critical investigation of postcolonial geography , As We Used to Float develops broader reflections on place and subjectivity. These spring from a series of narrative immersions, variously taking on the psychological and astehtic parameters of ultra-deep scuba diving, the decaying ‚Ghost Fleet’ of World War II battleships, irradiated coconuts, and more As We Used to Float is a sea-story for our time.