Ort(e):

nGbK, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11/13, 10178 Berlin

Teilnehmer_innen

Theresa Deichert, Gorleben Archiv / Gabriele Haas, Max Haiven, Ende Gelände / Kali, Moritz Maria Karl, Nowhere Kitchen, Grüne Jugend Pécs / Júlia Konkoly-Thege, Péter Molnár, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Oxana Timofeeva, Andrea Vetter

Arbeitsgruppe

Katalin Erdődi, Marc Herbst, Julia Kurz, Virág Major-Kremer, Vincent Schier

In the midst of the current energy crisis, how do we think about nuclear energy and the search for energy alternatives? Can we imagine energy futures not only without fossil fuel, but also beyond the nuclear? And how do we deal with high-level radioactive waste?

The two-year artistic-curatorial research project SALT. CLAY. ROCK. On Nuclear Pasts and Radiant Futures (2023-2024) investigates how nuclear industries and infrastructures affect our lives, not only delving into the production of nuclear energy and the storage of radioactive waste, but also how impacted communities coexist with their material, social and economic consequences on a daily basis. The exhibition and public program at nGbK share the results of extensive research done by the participating artists and curators of the nGbK work group, exploring connections between energy, politics, ecology and social movements from a translocal point of view.

The title SALT. CLAY. ROCK. is inspired by the three materials—salt, clay and granite—which are currently considered the most suitable for the storage of radioactive waste. The project juxtaposes the situation in Germany and Hungary, two countries that have chosen radically different paths when it comes to nuclear energy. While Germany initiated its nuclear exit in 2023 with the shutdown of all nuclear power plants, Hungary is building a new nuclear power plant, the heavily debated PAKS II. Despite these differences, both countries are challenged by the search for final repositories for their high-level radioactive waste, which, according to an EU regulation, have to be found within national borders. This is an unresolved issue globally; with the exception of the Finnish final repository Onkalo, planned to open in 2025, no other country has accomplished building a safe storage for this high-risk by-product of energy production.

The exhibition SALT. CLAY. ROCK. connects the city of Berlin with rural places in Germany and Hungary that host nuclear infrastructures such as uranium mines, power plants and waste repositories, or have been and still are important sites of anti-nuclear resistance. It presents nine new commissions resulting from the two-year research undertaken by the artists with the curatorial team. Many of the works were created in dialogue with local communities, foregrounding their subjective and grassroots perspectives. This shows how those directly impacted by the day-to-day reality of nuclear infrastructures coexist with its consequences, as well as its looming yet invisible dangers.

The exhibition is accompanied by a public program including guided tours, performances, discussions and film screenings, which will unfold the artistic-curatorial research and offer additional perspectives on the key questions of the exhibition.

Symposium

Friday, November 17, 2023, 17:00 - 22:00

nGbK event space

Nuclear waste as nuclear cultural heritage, anti-nuclear activism and resistance, connecting past and future struggles

On November 17, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, a London-based political sociologist from Lithuania, will present her research on the communities, materialities and locations of nuclear cultural heritage, followed by a conversation led by artist Anna Witt on the past and future of anti-nuclear resistance with activists from Ende Gelände, Gorleben Archiv and the Green Youth of Pécs, Hungary. They ask, “Who will continue these struggles, what can we learn from one another?” The evening comes to an end with a collective listening session by the artist group PPKK, who draw a poetic analogy between nuclear waste and human metabolism.

17:00–18:00

Welcome & Introduction to SALT. CLAY. ROCK.: guided tour by work group members and selected artists through the assembly’s research display

18:00–19:00

Keynote by Dr. Eglė Rindzevičiūtė: Hosts and Hostages of Nuclear Infrastructures: Managing and Containing Nuclear Materialities in the Post-Soviet Space

19:30–21:00 (in German and Hungarian, with whisper translation into English)

Conversation led by artist Anna Witt: on the pasts and futures of anti-nuclear resistance

Participants: Ende Gelände / Kali, Gorleben Archiv / Gabriele Haas, Green Youth Pécs / Júlia Konkoly-Thege

21:00–22:00

Artistic contribution: PPKK listening session

Saturday, November 18, 2023, 10:00-21:30

nGbK event space

Energy futures and solar politics, imaginaries of the future and the deep time of nuclear waste storage

On November 18, the Berlin-based author Max Haiven invites participants to come together to imagine other futures in the sci-fi fictioning workshop Writing After Their Future, followed by Nowhere Kitchen’s collective cooking and eating session. The afternoon will start with a reading of the workshop’s sci-fi texts and a collective conversation with SALT. CLAY. ROCK.’s participating artists and invited guests on the different sites they have been investigating, as well as on their respective artistic approaches to the sites.

Afterwards, the program enters the realms of deep time in an in-depth conversation with geologist Péter Molnár, who has dedicated decades of research to the clay rock in Boda that would potentially host Hungary’s final repository. The assembly then re-surfaces to contemplate our relationship to ‘Comrade Sun’ with philosopher Oxana Timofeeva, who will introduce her notion of Solar Politics and give impulses for further discussions on energy futures. This will be the topic of the last panel with transformation researcher Andrea Vetter, architect Moritz Maria Karl, and ecofeminist thinker Theresa Deichert on the challenges of a ‘green transformation’. They will also address how nuclear energy has recently been re-cast as ‘green energy’ by those who advocate for a nuclear techno-fix to climate change.

10 a.m.–1 a.m.

Writing After Their Future: A science fiction workshop with Max Haiven

1–2 p.m.

Break with Nowhere Kitchen: cooking and eating together

2–3 p.m.

Welcome and Introduction to SALT. CLAY. GRANITE: Collective reading of texts written during the science fiction workshop, followed by a guided tour of the research display by the curators and selected artists.

3–4:30 p.m.

Joint discussion with the artists and guests about their research and their artistic approach to the German and Hungarian locations where they will be working.

Participants: Ana Alenso (online), András Cséfalvay, Krisztina Erdei, Csilla Nagy & Rita Süveges, Sonya Schönberger, Marike Schreiber, Working Group Image Archive Asse II (Susanne Kriemann, Judith Milz, Lena Reisner)

5–6 p.m.

Nuclear Waste and Deep Time: A Geologist’s Perspective (online)

Conversation with geologist Péter Molnár (Pécs, Hungary), moderated by Csilla Nagy and Rita Süveges

6–7 p.m.

Break with Nowhere Kitchen: Presentation of their work and shared meal

7–8 p.m.

Keynote speech by Oxana Timofeeva on her book Solar Politics. Followed by a Q&A moderated by András Cséfalvay

8–9:30 p.m.

Discussion on future forms of energy generation and the challenges of the energy transition

Participants: Theresa Deichert, Moritz Maria Karl, Andrea Vetter (online)

Sunday, November 19

Internal working session with the artists, the nGbK working group SALT. CLAY. GRANITE., and the nGbK team

1–3 p.m.

Workshop on climate-neutral artistic production, open to nGbK members.

PUBLIC EVENTS

Friday, 29 November 2024, 6 pm

Exhibition Opening

Musical intervention by András Cséfalvay and Gabriela Šaturová

Saturday, 30 November 2024, 5 pm

Endless Energy and Timeless Dangers (en)

Guided tour in dialogue with András Cséfalvay, Katarina Šević and Dániel Misota / Conversation with the curators / Screening: Burial (2022) by Emilija Škarnulytė

Sunday, 1 December 2024, 2 pm

(Un)Folding Nuclear Temporalities (en/ger)

Guided tour in dialogue with Csilla Nagy & Rita Süveges, Dominika Trapp and Sonya Schönberger / Project presentation tfnukuz by bankleer

(Karin Kasböck and Christoph Leitner) / Conversation with the artists

Tuesday, 3 December 2024, 11 am

Sustainability Day (ger)

Architectural guided tour with Annette Maechtel and Elie Peuvrel (nGbK) / Workshop with Elie Peuvrel (nGbK) and Anne-Kathrin Braune (Akademie der Künste)

Thursday, 23 January 2025, 6 pm

Mining Nuclear Pasts and Radiant Futures (ger)

Guided tour in dialogue with Ana Alenso / Radiation Meditation with Grit Ruhland / Screening: Strahlend grüne Wiese (2021) by Sophie Hilbert / Conversation with the artists

Saturday, 8 February 2025, 2 pm

Collective Ways of Disagreeing (ger/en)

Live action role play and screening with Anna Witt and Aleksandra Saša Jeremić, Charlotte Kremberg, Eileen Raddatz, Ricarda Scheringer, Patrick Neugebauer, Philip Rudzinski, Silvio Kull, Valerija Rutz, Viviane Damitz (HBK Braunschweig)

Saturday, 8 February 2025, 6 pm

Under Pressure: Inheriting Energy Politics, Infrastructure and Resistance (ger)

Guided tour in dialogue with Anna Witt / Screening: Energy (2023)

by Paul Kolling / Conversation with the artists

Sunday, 9 February 2025, 11 am

Climate-neutral Brunch (ger) Presentation of the climate-neutral logbook with Elie Peuvrel (nGbK) and the curatorial team

Sunday, 9 February 2025, 2 pm

Umweltsonntag [Environmental Sunday] (ger)

Guided tour in dialogue with Marike Schreiber / Wasserempfang [water reception] and conversation with Marike Schreiber, Reinhard Dalchow and Björn Kröger