THE MARITIME TALE OF THE HERMIT CRAB
at MAAT Museum, Lisbon, Portugal
EDP New Artist Award
Cuartors: Catarina Rosendo, Lius Silva, Sergio Mah
On View: 9 April 2025 → 08 September 2025
Review in Contemporânea
Hand-dyed textile, handwoven linen fabric, weaving, crochet, fabric manipulation, steel, paper, resin, stone
Performers: Mirjam Külm (a compositora), Ellen Hörnberg, Hannah Smithies, Ricardo Gil Machado Pereira, Daria Morozova, Roberta Ba
Acknowledgements
Culture Moves Europe, The Loft Atelier, Clara Vicente, Wnoozow, Mirjam Külm, Daria Morozova, Gonçalo Barreiros, 3+1 Arte Contemporânea
‘The Maritime tale of the Hermit Crab’ references the life of hermit crab as a metaphor to address issues of dislocation, homelessness, vulnerability and loneliness in contemporary society. The hermit crab is the only crab that is born without a shell, instead it used found objects, most commonly sea shells as its home. However, with recent pollution issues, bottle tops, fragments of cans and other plastic waste have increasingly become used by the crabs as their shells. As the crab grows it needs to upgrade shells. This is usually done in cooperation with other crabs once a new empty shell is discovered on the beach through making an orderly queue to swap hand-me-down shells from the biggest crab to the smallest. This utopian collaboration is not always successful, however, as there may be more competition for one or more shells, leaving some crabs shell-less and in perilous danger of dying, for they cannot survive long without a shell.
This installation commissioned by MAAT Museum roots in the notion of “the body as a home” in psychological terms. With the ever-growing use of technology, online connectedness, heightened travel, precarious living and financial conditions for many of us, we have become increasingly disconnected from ourselves. Seeking one’s own ‘body as a home’ is the first step toward regaining a connection with ourselves and reaching out to form communities. The issues of rising homelessness and the housing crisis in Lisbon, the city where the artist lives and works in, are highlighted in this work, whilst simultaneaously it is also a story of hope and finding a home in a new country, about adaptation and assimilation, about merging one’s own culture with the culture of an adopted country.
‘The Maritime Tale of the Hermit Crab’ is an installation in 2 parts. A large textile structure in the form of a pillar with costumes mimicking shells that the audience can enter and inhabit as well as a stage for a 5 person choir that sings a ballad of the hermit crab specially composed by Mirjam Külm in Estonian, Welsh and Portuguese languages. Further, there are 3 crabs without their shells (made from basic buling materials used in construction) homeless so-to-say, displayed in the machine rooms of the MAAT Museum attempting to the use the space as their homes, squeezing their delicate fabric bodies in-between the machines. Perhaps a little bit ashamed of their nudity and homelessness, hiding from sight, but also grateful to have found refuge.
Catalogue essay by Leonor Carrilho:
The work of the artist Evy Jokhova (1984, Geneva is characterised by her interest in the relationships between nature and architecture, philosophy and art, as well as by her exploration of contemporary issues at the intersection of these disciplines. Having lived in Lisbon for the past six years, but with a vast life experience in several different cities around the world, Jokhova uses the life story of the hermit crab as a metaphor to reflect on Lisbon - a city in flux that is currently grappling with the dramatic effects of the
housing crisis and its impact on society and the urban landscape. A city is not merely a physical space; it is a place in which we develop our relationships and where collective practices emerge. This issue raises countless questions related to public policy, social justice, human dignity, culture, and identity... The Maritime Tale of the Hermit Crab can act as a springboard for a range of interpretations and conversations. However, our focus here is on the ideas of shelter and belonging that are so fundamental to Jokhova's practice. The hermit crab is the only member of its species born without a shell, and must therefore rely on the empty shells of other molluscs for its protection and survival. The shells it finds throughout its life become its shelters and are thus representations of safety and survival. Our sense of belonging does not stem solely from our connection to a shell or to a home, but also from the emotional, identity-based and affective bonds we have with our surroundings, our social and cultural embeddedness, and the roles we play in the interpersonal relationships that shape a place. In both cases, we are referring to existential comfort and the meaning of life. Jokhova's practice navigates these terrains from places that are tough, fragile, and real-but also replete with possibility and dreams.
In the space at MAAT, hidden amongst the original machinery of the Central Tejo thermoelectric station, are three crab sculptures — seemingly abandoned, camouflaged, or protected by the metal structures of the power plant. In her large-scale textile installation, Evy Jokhova continues her work around a trilogy of colours — green, shadow, and flesh. This trilogy began in 2022 at gallery 3+1 Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon with the exhibition Three Colours: Green, followed by Three Colours: Shadow at the Galeria Municipal de Arte de Almada in 2023, and concluded with Three Colours: Flesh, also at 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, in 2025.
For the exhibition of the 15th edition of the EDP Foundation New Artists Award, we find these very same hues, suggesting a direct link between the works — all of which address what lies within us, beneath our skin, our structure and survival, our limits and boundaries, and the gestures of transgression that are so intrinsic to the human condition.
Also entangled in the fabric the artist has chosen to work with is a clear connection between the installation and its embodied action, and this comes through our physical engagement when putting on the crab claws), as well as the activations and performances that are also part of the piece. These may have been devised by the artist — such as the musical performances — or merely facilitated by her in the creation of a work that can be worn. We can become the body and give form to her exploration.
Evy Jokhova's artistic practice is rooted in strongly collaborative and feminist methodologies and processes. To create this piece, she used fabric-dyeing techniques, embroidery, and crochet — practices traditionally associated with women who often depend on such skills for economic survival. Jokhova also invited the Estonian artist Miriam Hulm to compose a piece of music blending Estonian folk with traditional Portuguese singing. During the exhibition, the piece is sung in both Estonian and Portuguese as a symbol of union between the two cultures.
With a deep commitment to the exploration and critical analysis of her environment, Evy Jokhova engages with and exposes topical and relevant themes of our time.
- Leonor Carrilho, 2025
Image credits Bruno Lopes and Joana Linda