Pulling Blood from a Stone

Exhibition by Niamh Schmitdke

How can we further our understanding of minerals beyond their existence simply as objects of research and technology? Artist in residence, Niamh Schmidtke, dived deep into interdisciplinary dialogues trying to pull blood from rocks and stones. As a culmination of these encounters, she developed novel perspectives on the existence of rocks and minerals. They are explored in this art-science multimedia installation, which engages the visitors in a multisensory experience. The works are inspired by Niamh’s research with their science partner, geologist and custodian of the Mineral Collections at TU Berlin, Dr. Johannes Giebel.

The exhibition is the third edition of the art and environmental sciences research residency program EARTH WATER SKY curated by Ariane Koek, funded by the Fondation Didier et Martine Primat, and produced by members of the Science Gallery Network.

This Science Gallery exhibition has three elements, which we invite you to explore through sight, listening and touch.

The heart of the exhibition features an audio play, which is a piece of speculative fiction and is an imagining of the conversations minerals might have with each other. It is an attempt to engage with rocks and minerals past the scientific definitions imposed onto them.

The audio play is contained in a sculptural structure made of materials, which are painted in strata with the pigments extracted from some of the minerals featured in the audio piece. This tent-like structure holds the listener as they eavesdrop on the fictional exchanges between minerals.

Outside the structure, there are mobile phones, hanging on cords coloured again by pigments and made out of wool. Listen to and view the two-minute voice notes on them made by the artist, who reflects on their journeys about different forms of climate anxiety and the ironies of a ‘green’ Europe when travelling by transport, which itself is part of extraction.

And finally, at the back of the exhibition is a film, which exposes via the history of Namibia and the extraction of minerals there by German geologists, how climate justice and colonialism are entwined with oppression, extraction and genocide in the service of capital and conquest.

WHERE and WHEN

UNI_VERSUM - TU Berlin Exhibition Space
Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin

Vernissage: 23.5.2024

Soft opening at 17.00
Symposium - Hybrid Talks "CLIMATE IMPACT" at 18.00 in room H2037
Official reception at 20.00

Everyone welcome. Meet the artist, curator and geologist!

Exhibition: 24.05. - 22.06.2024
Opening hours: Mon-Fri, 11.00 – 15.00

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Credits

Artist in Residence: Niamh Schmidtke
Curator: Ariane Koek
Scientific Partner: Dr. Johannes Giebel, Mineral Collections at TU Berlin
Production: Dr. Kerstin Wagner, Science Gallery at TU Berlin
Production Support: Dr. Michael Fowler, Annette Müller, Robert Niemann, TU Berlin
Sound Designer: John Trevaskis
Sound Actors (in chronological order): Deborah S. Phillips, Oğuzcan Özyurt, Claudia Wiedemer, Sydney LaFaire, Mary Katharine Tramontana, Marie Nadja Haller, Agata Guevara, Ana Suarez Kavalis, Felipe Valdez, Leonie Rodrian
Audio Contributions: Dr. Johannes Giebel, Nikolai Azariah, Dr. Malina Lauterbach, Dylan Kerr and Niamh Schmidtke
German Translator: Beatrice Zaidenberg
Rukwangali Translator and Speaker: Nasira Makanga
Dyeing Research: Material Futures Residency at Cove Park, December 2023
With thanks to Fares Schulz at the TU Berlin Computer Music and Sound Synthesis Team, Gabriele Zemaitye at Kitmapper and Nina Davies.