Numina Gneisspecker developed a new multi-channel audiovisual installation to draw ”attention to catastrophic acts that are low in instant spectacle but high in long-term effects” (Nixon).
Zooming in on the harbours of Antwerp and Rotterdam, the two largest gateways into Europe’s economies, they find concrete beaches stacked with containers, ships filled with fossil fuels and many other elements fuelling our societies and consequential destruction. Petrochemical installations, (nuclear) power plants, distribution centres pass by while the main narrator of this installation, a trucker, tries to find some apocalyptic hope in this highly automated, yet inhospitable landscape. His warm and personal voice counterbalances his distant and inert surroundings. Can we ”rediscover the earth amongst its decomposition” (Kohso), he wonders.
Catastrophic Structures: listening to the hum of distant machinery was first shown at V2_ tryday in March 2024.
