NEW HAVEN
Dezemberausstellung: Fokus 30.11.2024-5.1.2025
Kunst Museum Winterthur
Installation New Haven, 2024
in Kollaboration mit Céline Brunko
Scobalit, wood, sound, projection, L310xW61xH95.5cm
“Ecological themes are at the heart of Céline Brunko (*1987) & Safia Hachemi‘s (*1988) work. For the Fokus exhibition, they have created an installation consisting of a sculptural structure made of scobalite and three photographs exposed directly onto aluminum plates. The photographs show human interventions in the landscape, taken from an extreme bird‘s eye view: a huge solar plant, a gigantic quarry and a dead-straight road. Their aesthetics evoke associations with Google Earth stills or satellite images and give rise to speculation as to whether they could be secret installations. The depicted facilities are located in close proximity to each other. But even independently of this, a narrative connection is created between energy generation, building material production and human infrastructure, isolated in an inhospitable mountain region, far away from civilization. The decision to use black and white images reinforces the effect of distance and abstraction. It allows the viewer to sense the alienation that exists between the extraction of resources
and their natural use in architecture and the comfort that it offers as a matter of course today. In contrast, the sculptural structure in the room, which Brunko designed in collaboration with Safia Hachemi, forms a striking contrast. Its simple, hutlike form and the undulating material evoke associations with makeshift dwellings, from favelas to allotment sheds. The miniature hut has a weathered and ghostly appearance, which is reinforced by the constantly changing interior lighting. The outer skin is made of Scobalit, a glass fiber-reinforced polyester resin that is known for its durability and is often praised today as ecologically harmless. However, Brunko & Hachemi point to the fragility and ecological dubiousness of this promise: the visibly decaying material of the sculpture highlights the discrepancy between theoretical recyclability and actual durability. From inside the sculpture, a soundscape of noises from a gravel processing plant can be heard, adding an auditory layer to the installation. Together with the targeted lighting, the photographs and the sculptural structure merge into an atmospheric whole. Brunko thematizes the extraction and recycling of raw materials as a dark, opaque process, which at the same time exerts a peculiar contemporary fascination through its industrial aesthetics.” Kunst Museum Winterthur
©fotos Reto Kaufmann