Absorption

2019

300 tonnes of organic and inorganic material: sand, silt, clay, phosphates, lime, spent grain, cuttlebone, legumes, coffee, green waste; human cultivators.

 

Absorption is a work in which elements of the landscape, which have been separated by industrial processes, are recombined into neosoil, which is then given away to visitors to an exhibition. The project has multiple phases, of which the middle phase is the exhibition.

 

In the first phase, local waste products and ingredients are sourced for the creation of a fertile neosoil, soil itself being a network of interacting living organisms that serves as the natural floor for human life. In its various iterations, neosoil made of shredded exhibition guides, spent barley, core samples, iron hydroxide, human hair, humus, coffee bean skins, cocoa husks, sewage sledge, coke, compost, shredded costumes from Ruhrtriennale productions, clay, quartz sand, pigeon excrement and feathers, packing materials, sand, and grape marc among others.

 

During the exhibition a group of cultivators, who create and take care of the soil and interact with visitors to the exhibition. In the final phase, the remaining neosoil is distributed to members of the community, such as community gardens, botanical gardens and other individuals who want or have a need for soil.

 

Absorption was initially developed in collaboration with Alex McBratney, Professor of Digital Agriculture & Soil Science, at the University of Sydney Department of Agriculture, with subsequent contributions from Gerd Wessolek, professor for soil protection, soil physics and soil hydrology at the Institute of Ecology, Technische Universität Berlin and soil scientists working at the University of Birmingham in the UK.