DANIEL STEEGMANN MANGRANÉ
Born in 1977
The migration of forms between different registers, such as nature, art and architecture, is at the center of Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s multimedia practice. His works, which include film, drawing, sculpture, environmental and sound installations, define landscapes in which the borders are constantly questioned: between organic and artificial materials, between man and the environment, between subject and object, nature and culture. Each element of his compositions is intended as part of an ecosystem, in an interdependent relationship with the context and its components. The immersive aspect of many of the artist’s works aims to insert the observer in a relationship of ontological continuity with the work and the rest of the world. An example from this research path can be found in the piece presented at the 58th October Salon, A Dream Dreaming a Dream (2020), consisting of a continuously self-generating online animation featuring a panther wandering within a tropical forest. The animal’s dream takes on different forms each time, stopping and starting incessantly, imbued with the vague misperception of a half-sleep state, between new oneiric images and repeated awakenings. A Dream Dreaming a Dream blends different forms of knowledge, from indigenous wisdom, to the relationship with animal and plant beings and with the spiritual entities of the forest, from the images and sensations of dreams, up to the mechanics of artificial intelligence, thus defining novel ways to relate to the real, virtual, and dream world.