Ana Alenso
Pech and Blende
2 hammer drills, drill supports, hoses and drill steel, cartridge casings, 0.50 BMG bullets, 3 photographs (framed, 60 x 80 cm), data sheets of hammer drill, 2024
In her artistic work, Ana Alenso deals with the global dependence on resources and the ecological, political, social and economic exploitation that goes hand in hand with it. Mines, mining and related questions have been a longstanding focus for the artist. As part of SALT. CLAY. ROCK., she expanded her research to uranium mining and the contemporary post-mining landscape of the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in Germany, concentrating on Johanngeorgenstadt and Schlema, two towns with a key role in the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) history of uranium mining. The effects and consequences of this important industry for the GDR are still being discussed and dealt with today and will probably not be conclusively clarified in the future. To this day, the social, health, and above all the ecological effects of uranium mining shape coexistence in the region. Since the end of mining, Wismut GmbH - the successor company of the Soviet-German Corporation of the same name (Wismut SDAG) - has been remediating the uranium mining legacies, with an unforeseeable end.
In her installation, Ana Alenso sets up two hammer drills, to confront each other like military enemies. These drills were once used to mine uranium ore underground in Aue and Bad Schlema within the Erzgebirge. The equipment, borrowed from Wismut GmbH, was carefully cleaned and assessed for residual radioactivity. Nevertheless, radioactive contamination still lingering inside the equipment, though harmless to visitors of the exhibition, cannot be ruled out. The hammer drills not only symbolize the effects of underground work on the human body—in addition to the radioactive radiation of uranium, miners were exposed to pollutants, radon exposure, emissions from the rock and dust—they also stand as a sign for the violence anchored in human action towards nature, as well as the violence that uranium may unleash with its radioactive potential.
Because of the massive uranium deposits in the Erzgebirge, Wismut SDAG quickly became the largest producer of uranium for the Soviet nuclear program and played a key role in the Cold War nuclear arms race. Furthermore, the Wismut was organized like a military enterprise or a "state within a state" and enabled the USSR to become a nuclear superpower. Regrettably, the role of uranium in global conflicts is not a thing of the past. In addition to attacks on nuclear infrastructure, weapons with uranium ammunition are reportedly used by both warring parties in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The use of these weapons can have far-reaching and long-term consequences for the civilian population and makes it difficult to rebuild affected areas because the effects of uranium are so difficult to remediate.
The hoses of the hammer drills, which are part of their compressed air and cooling systems, are arranged in the shape of an infinity sign and form a closed circuit. This illustrates the temporal dimension of uranium, which shapes the past and at the same time shows a future that cannot be overlooked and lies beyond human imagination. The cycle also highlights how underground mines are globally interconnected due to their social and environmental impacts. Not only are they often linked in the global supply chain system, but they are also emblematic of the insatiable urge to expand and the impulse to exuberantly extract, which takes place all over the world.
Special thanks to Augusto Gerardi Rousset, Susann Krächan (Wismut GmbH), Simone Müller (Wismut GmbH), Lukas Oertel und Matthew Jonathan Raven.
ANA ALENSO
Ana Alenso's artistic practice addresses the historical, social and environmental impacts of extractivism, global resource politics, and the trade of precious metals and fossil fuels. Her installations are often temporary and closed-circuit assemblages, consisting of sculptures, photographs, sound, and video. Her poetic, industrial, yet darkly dystopian work is usually preceded by extensive research and field studies. She participated in artistic residencies at Goethe Institut Chile, Villa Sträuli in Switzerland and Urbane Künste Ruhr in Dortmund. Recent exhibitions include: Geneva Biennale: “Sculpture Garden” in Switzerland, “Street fight at Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland; “Oil - Beauty and Horror in the Petrol Age” at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; “The Garden Bridge” at Brücke Museum, “El Museo de la democracia” in NGBK and “Terrestrial Assemblage” at Floating University in Berlin. She holds an MFA in Art in Context from the Berlin University of Arts (2015), an MFA in Media Art & Design from Bauhaus University Weimar (2012) and an BA from Armando Reverón Arts University in Venezuela (2004).
