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projects > art > PETRO/ENTANGELMENTS: How to be Present to Aqualife

PETRO/ENTANGELMENTS: How to be Present to Aqualife




PETRO/ENTANGELMENTS: How to be Present to Aqualife

“Petro–” comes from the Ancient Greek pétra (πέτρα), meaning rock or stone, the root of “petroleum” — petra + elaion (oil) — “rock oil” formed from ancient organic matter compressed through geological time. It speaks of deep time, transformation, and the mineral origins of both life and fuel. Today, “petro–” signifies the vast network of fossil-based energy, extractive capitalism, and petrochemical dependency that sustains our material and digital worlds.

“Entanglement,” from Middle English tanglen and Old Norse töngull — meaning seaweed, something that clings or intertwines — evokes the inseparable relationships between human and non-human systems. Together, PETROENTANGLEMENTS suggests a condition where geological, biological, and technological lives are woven into a shared fabric of coexistence and consequence.

Petroentanglements invites audiences to descend into the submerged ecologies of the Adriatic Sea (to be adaptable to other regions), where traces of human industry merge with marine life. Developed through scuba dives and underwater fieldwork near post-industrial sites around Rijeka, Croatia, it explores how petrochemical residues continue to shape aquatic ecosystems. It is both observation and meditation — on toxicity, resilience, and the ethics of coexistence — reflecting on oil not only as a pollutant but as a material that binds human and non-human futures.

This body of work includes analogue holography, synchronised video works, drawings, and a manifesto for underwater artistic observation.

As with much of Molga’s work, PETROENTANGLEMENTS remains an evolving inquiry. It proposes new ways of sensing the Anthropocene through immersive artistic research — merging technology, biology, and empathy. It invites us to be present for aqua life, to listen where access is denied, and to recognise the fragile beauty that persists within damaged waters.

SUPPORTED BY

STARTS EU
The project was commissioned as a part of STARTS4WATERII residency



DRUGO MORE
Rijeka,
Croatia




THE TEAM
Creative / Art Lead and Scuba Diving:
KASIA MOLGA
Filming, Sound and Editing:
IVAN MAREVICH
Creative Tech:
ANDREY CHUGONOV
Project Management:
HENRY MADDICOTT
Support:
DAVOR DELIJA

EXHIBITIONS

17th Oct - 7th Nov 2025
Galerija Filodrammatica
Drugo More, Rijeka
Croatia


Watch video

CITIZEN SCIENCE INIATIVE

Dedicated Website
PETROSEEPS.PHOTOS



Source Code and Dataset
GITHUB/PETROENTANGELMENTS




Petro/entangelments

How to be present for Aqua-life
FIELD MANUAL FOR ARTISTIC UNDERWATER OBSERVATION after Jacques-Yves Cousteau: "The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish."
The Manifesto for Underwater Observation emerged from a simple but persistent problem: the underwater world resists the ways we are used to seeing, recording, and knowing. Visibility is unstable, time behaves differently, and access is often restricted—both physically and institutionally. Working in post-industrial coastal zones like Rijeka, where harbour authorities limit entry and scientific testing is costly, made this even more urgent. The manifesto was written to challenge these constraints and to propose another approach: one grounded in embodied, slow observation through diving, where perception is shaped by breath, buoyancy, pressure, and partial vision. It reframes underwater looking as a situated, collective act: one that acknowledges absence, distortion, and uncertainty as forms of knowledge rather than limitations.
It became a poem because instruction alone was not enough. The conditions of underwater perception — fragmented, suspended, immersive — cannot be fully captured through technical language. Writing it as a poem allows the manifesto to operate as both a guide and a sensory translation, mirroring the rhythms and disorientation of being submerged and descending deeper, under the pressure, with colours challenging our senses. It aims to invite others: divers, snorkellers, observers — to enter this altered mode of attention, where images are not just collected but felt, questioned, and then reinterpreted. In this way, the manifesto is not only a method but also an artistic gesture: a tool for producing knowledge differently, and for resisting the opacity that surrounds submerged environments.
ENTRY
pause before descent,
heavy with air and habit

your mask narrows
the world to a circle

your suit folds your body
into constraint.

crossing into water
is not entering
another place

it is entering
another kind of time,
measured by
rhythm
of your
breath
▼
DESCENT
sink slowly

reassure your body
that it can breathe

that it belongs here for a while.

there are no roads below
only a landscape
light
forms
organisms in a state of flux
and those
who
settled in place
sediment and petro/remains
marks of industry
now softened by
algae and patience.

navigation is a negotiation
with currents
shadows
and landmarks.


The sea edits colour
red fades first
blue endures.

you only can see what water
decides to reveal.
▼
STILLNESS
find a place and stop
let yourself hover
in suspension
neutral, almost erased

observation begins when movement ends

do not search
wait

Become a sponge
a pipe
a coral skeleton

let the landscape
breathe around you
residues gleaming
like false stars
fish weaving
through the wreckage
life returning to ruins.

stay until time thickens
notice how decay
and persistence
blend
▼
RECORD
attend to texture
what floats
plankton, dust,
or waste?

how does light
fracture through it?

are plants veiled
thriving
or drowning in fine sludge?

is life abundant
shy
or absent?

what is persistent
and what is scarce?

note also the invisible
temperature shifts
pressure
rhythm of breath
metallic echoes
from distant structures

record with care
The act of seeing
must come before
the act of documenting

A camera captures
only what has been felt
▼
RETURN
when you surface
write before forgetting

Not only data
but sensations
silence
resistance
awe.

return often
Only time reveals
the slow choreography of change
pipes rusting into coral
sediments thickening
into stories.

observation
is not extraction
it is relation
to see is to entangle
to witness is to care

we are all suspended
in the same medium
fish
algae
diver
and machine
breathing one another's remains

to observe the sea
is to become part of it
to observe a fish
is to become a fish
▼

ENTRY

pause before descent,
heavy with air and habit

your mask narrows
the world to a circle

your suit folds your body
into constraint.

crossing into water
is not entering
another place

it is entering
another kind of time,
measured by
rhythm
of your
breath
The Entry section of the manifesto marks the moment of immersion as both a physical descent and the beginning of data gathering. It is grounded in the extensive collection of underwater photographs and recordings I produced while diving across sites with varying levels of pollution - from relatively clean areas to heavily contaminated zones accessed with ROV support. These images were not taken as neutral documentation but as situated observations: shaped by limited visibility, shifting light, and the presence or absence of marine life. I focused on capturing species, their frequency, behaviours, and relations to each other and to industrial residues, building a dataset that reflects lived underwater conditions rather than controlled scientific sampling.
This growing archive forms the basis for training AI modelsa to recognise patterns within species communities and detect subtle indicators of ecological stress linked to oil remnants. At the same time, it feeds into the artistic process - becoming photographic works, holograms, and part of an open, evolving database. By placing data collection within the poetic structure of the manifesto, Entry reframes it as an embodied, collective act of witnessing, where recording is inseparable from perception, and where each image contributes to a shared effort to understand and make visible the changing state of underwater ecosystems.
Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 3, 2025, Sabellidae - feather duster worms Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 2, 2025, Industrial remains taken over by marine life Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 2, 2025, Industrial remains Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 1, 2025, Spiny Starfish, Marthasterias glacialis Underwater image 5 Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 2, 2025, Industrial remains - part of the motorcycle engine Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — dive 6, 2025, industrial remains - old chain taken over by a sea life Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — dive 2, 2025, Antedon mediterranea Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025; Red Scorpionfish hiding in the piece of industrial rubbish at the sea bottom Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 3, 2025, Loligo Vulgaris - Squid eggs on the parts of old engine Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025, Rubbish at the sea bottom - old tyres Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025, Rubbish at the sea bottom - old tyres Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025, Rubbish at the sea bottom - old ropes Underwater image 14 Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025, Swarm of fish Underwater image 16 Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025; Rubbish at the sea bottom Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025, industrial remains Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025; Rubbish at the sea bottom Underwater image 18 Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025; Red Scorpionfish hiding in the piece of industrial rubbish at the sea bottom Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour — dive 3, 2025, Loligo Vulgaris - Squid eggs on the parts of old engine Adriatic seabed, Rijeka harbour, Torpedo — ROV, 2025, industrial remains

DESCENT

Sink slowly.
Reassure your body that it
can breathe, that it belongs
here for a while.
There are no roads below,
only a landscape, light, forms,
organisms in a state of flux
and those who settled in
place, sediment and petro-
remains — marks of industry
now softened by algae and
patience.

Navigation is a negotiation
with currents, shadows and
landmarks.
The sea edits colour: red
fades first, blue endures.
You only can see what water
decides to reveal.
Two synchronised video works unfold this dialogue. One depicts organisms Molga encountered while diving — feather duster worms, brittle stars, starfish, squid eggs, and sea anemones — modelled in Blender as poetic bioindicators. The other shows AI training on data from her dives, attempting to recognise visual cues of toxicity. When the AI fails, the first video morphs into surreal forms — imagined creatures that might or might not exist. A soundtrack of underwater recordings and voices from a roundtable at the Natural History Museum in Rijeka — petroleum workers, biologists, ecologists, divers, and citizens — weaves human memory with the living sea.
Two synchronised video works unfold this dialogue. One depicts organisms Molga encountered while diving — feather duster worms, brittle stars, starfish, squid eggs, and sea anemones — modelled in Blender as poetic bioindicators. The other shows AI training on data from her dives, attempting to recognise visual cues of toxicity. When the AI fails,
the first video morphs into surreal forms — imagined creatures that might or might not exist. A soundtrack of underwater recordings and voices from a roundtable at the Natural History Museum in Rijeka — petroleum workers, biologists, ecologists, divers, and citizens — weaves human memory with the living sea.

STILLNESS

Find a place and stop.
Let yourself hover in
suspension — neutral, almost
erased.
Observation begins when
movement ends.

Do not search; wait.
Become a sponge, a pipe, a
coral skeleton.
Let the landscape breathe
around you:
residues gleaming like false
stars,
fish weaving through the
wreckage,
life returning to ruins.

Stay until time thickens.
Notice how decay and
persistence blend.
The holograms in Petroentanglements are produced using analogue techniques based on laser interference, often within the red light spectrum, to register how light interacts with surfaces and materials. This approach connects to scientific research where holography is used for detecting changes in water quality and toxicity - such as digital holographic microscopy and interferometric methods that can identify micro-particles, oil residues, or plankton stress responses in aquatic environments. By translating underwater photographic data into holographic plates, the work adopts and reinterprets these principles, making subtle material traces perceptible through shifting, three-dimensional images.


Conceptually, this link to scientific holography is critical. While laboratories use holograms for precise measurement, Petroentanglements expands their role into a perceptual and political space. The holograms operate at the threshold of visibility - revealing and obscuring simultaneously - mirroring both the physical difficulty of seeing underwater and the institutional opacity surrounding polluted sites. Referencing scientific uses of holography (e.g. digital holographic microscopy in aquatic toxicity studies), the project repositions the medium as a tool not only for detection but also for public awareness, questioning who has access to such knowledge and how it is communicated.

RECORD

Attend to texture.
What floats — plankton, dust,
or waste?
How does light fracture
through it?
Are plants veiled, thriving, or
drowning in fine sludge?
Is life abundant, shy, or
absent? What is persistent
and what is scarce?

Note also the invisible:
temperature shifts, pressure,
rhythm of breath,
metallic echoes from distant
structures.

Record with care.
The act of seeing must
come before the act of
documenting.
A camera captures only what
has been felt.
Sketches in Petroentanglements function as a bridge between direct underwater observation and the translation of that experience into data and artworks. Made before, during, and after dives, they capture what photography often cannot: movement, uncertainty, peripheral vision, and the temporal unfolding of encounters. They record not only species and forms, but also relations—how organisms cluster, avoid, overlap, or disappear in proximity to industrial remnants. These drawings operate as cognitive maps of the dive, helping to register patterns, absences, and impressions that later inform both the dataset and the artistic process.
At the same time, sketches are a critical part of the manifesto for underwater observation. They resist the assumption that visual recording must be precise or objective, instead embracing partiality and interpretation as valid forms of knowledge. In this project, sketching becomes a method of slowing down perception and re-entering the dive from memory, allowing new connections to emerge. These marks feed into the development of AI training categories, influence compositional decisions in photographic and holographic works, and act as an intermediary layer where scientific observation and artistic intuition meet.

RETURN

When you surface, write
before forgetting.
Not only data, but sensations
— silence, resistance, awe.
Return often. Only
time reveals the slow
choreography of change:
pipes rusting into coral,
sediments thickening into
stories.

Observation is not extraction;
it is relation.
To see is to entangle.
To witness is to care.

We are all suspended in the
same medium — fish, algae,
diver, and machine — breathing
one another’s remains.

To observe the sea is to
become part of it.
To observe a fish —
is to become a fish.
FOR GENERAL ENQUARIES:
hello@studiomolga.com
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