about SALT. CLAY. ROCK.
collective editorial
23/09/05
Berlin
SALT. CLAY. ROCK. On Nuclear Pasts and Radiant Futures
30 November 2024 – 9 February 2025
Opening: 29 November 2024, 6 pm
The current energy crisis and related geopolitical conflicts only exacerbates our need to focus on the search for energy alternatives and the toxic legacies of nuclear infrastructures.
SALT. CLAY. ROCK. is our two-year artistic and curatorial research project looking into how nuclear infrastructures actually affects our lives, with a particular focus on nuclear energy production and radioactive waste storage and the mostly rural communities directly impacted by it.
So, we have commissioned eleven artist to produce artworks based on residencies in rural Hungary and Germany, after conducting curatorial research in these areas. These locations include
in Germany: the Wendland, Erzgiberge, Rheinsberg, Morseleben
in Hungary: Paks, Bátapáti, Boda, Ófalu
The November to February 2025 exhibition and public program at nGbK Berlin shares the results of the extensive research done by participating artists and curators, who explore connections between energy, politics, ecology and social movements from a translocal point of view.
Participating Artists include:
Ana Alenso, András Cséfalvay, Krisztina Erdei with Dániel Misota, Csilla Nagy & Rita Süveges, Sonya Schönberger, Marike Schreiber, Katarina Sevic, Dominika Trapp, Anna Witt.
Our curatorial team includes:
Katalin Erdödi, Marc Herbst, Julia Kurz, Virág Major-Kremer, Vincent Schier
The title SALT. CLAY. ROCK. is inspired by the three materials—salt, clay and granite—which are currently considered most suitable for the storage of radioactive waste. The project juxtaposes the situation in Germany and Hungary, two countries, which have chosen radically different paths when it comes to nuclear energy. While Germany completed its nuclear exit in 2023, Hungary is building a new nuclear power plant, the heavily debated PAKS II. Despite these differences, both countries are challenged by the search for suitable final repositories for their high-level radioactive waste, which according to EU agreements, has to be found within national borders. This is an unresolved issue globally; as of yet, no country has accomplished building a safe storage for this high-risk by-product of energy production.
The exhibition also has a public program that has included an artist-led tour of nuclear infrastructure, a site-based performance, and a three-day research assembly at nGbK that featured discussions, screenings, performances and our developing research archive. We have also supported an Erasmus project that resulted in an photo exhibition in Hungary.
Programming during and after our Berlin will unfold the research and offer additional perspectives on the key questions of the exhibition.
The project also features a research blog that attempts to capture some of our ongoing research, with field reports from contributions by participating artists, contributing theorists, and our own reflections on project themes.
By accepting funding from the Zero programme of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, SALT. CLAY. ROCK. is participating in the programme's experiment in producing a climate neutral cultural production. As a part of our contribution to the experiment in climate neutral cultural production, we are producing this CO2 logbook which includes our carbon accounting and a discussion of the challenges of producing a sprawling multi-national project from beginning to end in a climate neutral manner.