project page connecting earth

CONNECTING EARTH

︎mapping a two-year walk
(2022 - 2023)

Installation for group exposition: PÁN
at Campo Santo, Ghent
September 2023

This work is the materialization of the memories of walks I took over the past two years.
As a collector, walking in nature or in the city, I reconstruct a landscape of talismans and ‘faits divers’ in this installation.

On each trip, I collected soil samples that I processed at home into glazes for the ceramic connection pieces in the installation.
Due to the difference in chemical composition, the "wild" soil generates glazes of different colors in a natural shade ranging from transparent white,
over sandy yellow ochre, to moss green, dark brown and black.
Using a logbook, each piece is archived, numbered and described according to the specifics of the earth and the memory of the walk.

In the installation, the ceramic elements are connected by branches, which were debarked like hiking sticks, trophies from the forest.
The balancing construction almost looks like a skeleton of a forgotten species or a remnant of a camp of playing children.
At the same time, it can be read as a metaphor for connecting earth: with the connecting pieces from everywhere, a kind of shelter was built.

Gradually it has become a very personal story, with a poetic-scientific undertone.