Natalia Domínguez Rangel - Deep Dive - Fundatie Forward

If you hold a shell to your ear, you can hear the sea. This simple action demonstrates already the deep connection between our bodies and the ocean. But this connection is even stronger than most people would suspect. We begin our lives floating in amniotic fluid that has almost the same chemical composition as ocean water, while our characteristics still resemble those of fish. Our bodies are largely made up of water. The deep sea is the link to our planet's ancient past; we were all born from the ocean. The unknown parts of the ocean are like the unknown parts of our human psyche. The deeper we dive, the more there is to learn. But the ocean is changing so rapidly that parts of it will disappear before we can fully understand them. We do not yet know what we are, and as parts of our primordial past vanish, we may never know. Natalia Domínguez Rangel has long been fascinated by the ocean. In this new Fundatie Forward exhibition, she explores the themes hidden in the deep sea.

The ocean is another world, with its own rules. Time passes differently there. When you free dive, your body changes, adapting to the depth. Your senses are dulled, your heart beats more slowly, your consciousness drifts towards the meditative rhythm of the sea. You return to your origins and encounter the unknown. But the romantic, mysterious appeal of the deep is overshadowed by colonial history and human greed. Deep-sea exploration has destroyed large parts of the most remote and largest ecosystems in our world. The deep sea is both ancient and threatened, mystical and militarized, life-giving and suffocating. It is both our origin and our reckoning. In the deep blue, we are confronted with the truth that the depths of the ocean are not separate from us – they are the mirror of our own depths. Listening more attentively and consciously to the ocean forces us to consider who we are, and the others – human and non-human – whose characteristics are intertwined with ours.

_{Natalia Domínguez Rangel, Connecting Acoustic Spaces - Blue Cocoon, 2020-22, glass sound and led light sculpture, photo Simon Veres}

Natalia Domínguez Rangel transforms the Cloud of Museum de Fundatie Zwolle in one large bubble, filled with glas, ceramic and metal sculptures. With a composition created especially for this exhibition, she invites you to listen with a critical ear. DEEP DIVE is a call to return to our origins. What surfaces when we listen to the reflexes buried deep in our flesh—older than language, older than thought? And what would it be like if we were to live once again in alignment with the earth that sustains us?

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a foreword by director Beatrice von Bormann, an essay by curator Sanne van de Kraats, and images of the exhibition. Published by W-books. This will be presented during the Fundatie Friday on Friday, 6 November 2026.

Natalia Domínguez Rangel is a Colombian/Dutch visual sound artist and music composer currently living and working in Vienna (AT) and Amsterdam (NL). She makes sculptures, installations, and performances, always on the intersection of sound and sculpture. Domínguez Rangel creates unique sensory experiences. Her work responds directly to the surrounding environment and uses everyday listening experiences as a starting point, as well as the acoustic impacts on our environment. Central to her work is an interest in body autonomy, empowerment, inclusivity, and solidarity, as well as the materiality of both sculpture and sound.  

Domínguez Rangel has exhibited her works all over the world. She is part of the female collective laschulas, an assemblage of musicians, sound and visual artists and curators. She teaches sound studies at the Design Art Technology department of ArtEZ, Arnhem (NL). Domínguez Rangel is also the winner of the Mario Merz prize fifth edition, ran by Fondazione Merz (IT) and the music composition prize Tera de Marez Oyens (NL). She has taught and given lectures at Columbia University in New York City (USA), Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Die Angewandte and the Akademie der bildenden Künst, all in Vienna (AT). DEEP DIVE  is part of the Fundatie Forward programme, a series of first solo museum exhibitions by contemporary artists who live and work (partly) in the Netherlands. With this series, Museum de Fundatie sets art in motion and offers artists a platform to experiment.

_{Natalia Domínguez Rangel, Pain is Red, 2023, lost wax casted glass, plexi glass mirror, alluminium, mdf, 68 x 65 x 15 cm, photo Simon Veres}

Header image: Natalia Domínguez Rangel, Fluid Pair, 2023, VR sculpted, PLA 3D print, photo print, stainless steel, 55 x 80 x 30cm, photo Simon Veres

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