Their exhibition in/un becoming previously held in September at the historic site of Saalecker Werkstaetten, showcases the results of their collaborative workshop on-site. For two weeks, the fellows explored, through both theoretical and practical experiments, the theme Designing Metabolic Relations - how can we build Regenerative Systems?, conceived by dieDAS Artistic Director Maurizio Montalti and Head Mentor Eugenia Morpurgo.
“The exhibition tangibly materialises some of the many subjects that have been explored, both theoretically and practically, along the incredibly rich program of this year's fellowship. Pivoting around key notions such as ephemerality, transience/transformation and change, the collective presentation not only documents and analyses the qualities of locally-sourced materials, but it rather allows for reflecting on the functioning and overall agency that metabolic processes have on any kind of materiality, as in a continuous reciprocal dialogue mediating between process, form, and the in-between.” Maurizio Montalti - dieDAS Artistic Director 2020-2021-2022
in/un becoming places an emphasis on the transitional moments between materials. We focused on both organic and inorganic matter, in other words, the biosphere and lithosphere landforms in which they reside. We look to metabolism within Saaleck as a guiding principle to document the past while also looking to the future of the place.
As a collective, we have gathered, catalogued and set in motion a series of objects and findings to exemplify several forms of metabolism that were found in the vicinity of Saaleck.
The exploration traces the transformation of landscape matter through the diverse timescales of natural cycles and anthropic-induced processes, mutating both organic and inorganic entities. We reduced ourselves as well as the place we inhabited to the common denominator which transversally unites earthly entities: materiality.
in/un becoming has been curated based on the rates of metabolism that we have observed, from plant and fungi species to soil and mineral samples. We have reduced these into essential colours through the processes of natural dying and pigmentation, additionally visualising chemical components via chromatographies.
We have captured the hidden digestive mechanism of the building through mycelium imprints and crystalised found-objects to similarly explore the stratification of time. We endorsed the metabolic processes by embracing the ephemerality of the colours and the perpetually changing forms.
In light of the imminent conservation of the building, we propose the exhibition as a reminder of the transience of ideological beliefs embedded into architecture as well as its physicality. Reducing it to matter allows us to reposition the future trajectory of the building. Matter controls us. Exercising the ability to change ourselves with it is fundamental. We see metabolism as a choreographer of life and we humans are dancers among many.
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