SUPERFLEX’s film Hunga Tonga navigates the dreamscapes of earth, sea and space, seen through the eyes and senses of humans, microscopic organisms and the newly-formed volcanic island Hunga Tonga in the South Pacific. The film is the outcome of SUPERFLEX’s expedition to Hunga Tonga aboard the good ship Dardanella in 2018 as part of a larger research project, Deep Sea Minding. Commissioned by TBA21-Academy, as part of their recurrent programme The Current, Deep Sea Minding merges artistic and scientific research to surface relevant data from the depths and propose structures to serve the needs and desires of both humans and marine creatures. The exploration of Hunga Tonga, a unique corner in our blue planet where the frontier between land and sea suffered an extreme transformation, brings a new view in the relationship between human life in the surface and existence in the depths. Abandoning our anthropocentric view to explore further, transgressing the limits of the sea surface and of time, overlooking a near future covered in water. The film begins with a dive into the darkest depths of the Pacific ocean, where you, as a viewer, will metamorphose into an extremophile, a primordial organism with an endurance of mythical proportions. With the ability to thrive in geochemically extreme environments, the extremophile lives in the deep sea vents and can rebirth itself under any conditions. At least, up until the weakest and most destructive species on earth started to dig in their cavernous homes, looking for rare minerals to power their superfluous machines. Deep sea mining is the first real threat to the strongest creature known to date, forced to abandoned the depths and seek the surface. In another time and chapter, the cinematic metamorphosis will turn towards humans, a rare marine species seeking adaptation on land, in the newly born island of Hunga Tonga. Emerging from a long time in the sea, their retained capacity of producing technology is their only weapon to adapt to an extreme environment. As if landing on a remote planet, their need to use all resources in hand is awakened from their deepest instincts. Melting the earth to transform nature into civilisation, again. But in this imagined yet palpable future, survival on land becomes arduous. Humans long again for the sea, which somewhere in time became their home. After the departure of humans, it is the island who will gain consciousness. On its wrinkled skin, the memories of persistent extremophiles and past humans remain engraved. Like the Danish explorer Tavi who lived in isolation on Hunga Tonga, escaping the harshness of modern human conditions and merging with the island and the sea. But even nature undergoes processes of destruction and upheaval. Through a huge volcanic eruption, Hunga Tonga reset and rebirthed itself. Lava swallowed the land and built a new island. As Hunga Tonga will tell you, there is no life, no island outside of time. Commisioned by TBA21-Academy