Guided tour in dialogue with Ana Alenso through the exhibition SALT. CLAY. ROCK., Radiation Meditation with Grit Ruhland, Screening: Strahlend grüne Wiese (2021) by Sophie Hilbert

The artistic research of Ana Alenso, Grit Ruhland and Sophie Hilbert begins shortly after the Second World War with the start of the Soviet-European history of uranium and its initially military purpose. After the first discoveries of uranium in the Ore Mountains, the Soviet Ministry of the Interior begins a large-scale search. In 1947, several mining sites in Germany were transferred to Soviet ownership by order of the Soviet military administration, and soon became special zones with stricter security conditions. After the founding of the GDR, Wismut SDAG was established in 1954 with the task of uranium mining and counterintelligence. Today, Wismut, transformed into a limited liability company after the political reunification of 1990, is responsible for the decommissioning, remediation and recultivation of the mining legacies in Saxony and Thuringia.

Ana Alenso’s artistic contribution Pech und Blende to the exhibition SALT. CLAY. ROCK deals with former uranium mines in the Ore Mountains. Based on the role of these mines and the Soviet-German mining company Wismut in nuclear armament during the Cold War, the artist deals with past geological contexts and today’s geopolitical landscapes.

Ana Alenso regularly works on the historical, social and ecological effects of extractivism, global resource policy and the trade in precious metals and fossil fuels. Her installations are often temporary and self-contained assemblages consisting of sculptures, photographs, audio elements and video. Her poetic-industrial and yet darkly dystopian works for SALT. CLAY. ROCK were also preceded by extensive research and several field studies.

Grit Ruhland’s Radiation Meditation takes up the mystical-esoteric aspect of low-level radiation and includes an unreal journey through the northern Vogtland, the later Ronneburg mining district, through nuclear cores and Soviet military facilities. In the 20th century, uranium has changed from a chemical to a cultural element: it has become part of our global everyday life – physically, psychologically and politically. In 1986, Ullrich Beck described all forms and applications of radioactive elements as an “expropriation of the senses”. Until 120 years ago, this initially physical phenomenon was still as unsuspected as gravity. Is it now possible to think of radioactivity in terms of both its horror and its sublimity? What can the first link in the nuclear chain, uranium mining, contribute as an insight?

Grit Ruhland’s artistic work focuses on environmental behavior, the effects of mining and nuclear heritage. Her practice includes projects in the fields of participatory art, art in public space and sound art as well as interaction with scientific institutes and topics. Ruhland studied Fine Arts at the HfBK Dresden and completed her PhD on the impact of uranium mining on the landscape of East Germany at the Bauhaus University Weimar. She has taught at various universities, including the TU Dresden and the University of Regensburg, and is currently a member of the “Digital Art Education” project at the Bauhaus University Weimar.

Sophie Hilbert’s video work Radiant Green Meadow deals with the legacy of uranium mining in East Germany, which has been undergoing remediation for 30 years. The radioactive past forms the soil for today’s residents. But what exactly is in the ground there? Based on this question, the film searches for the processes and actors involved in the landscape. The film digs through traces of large-scale redevelopment projects, activism, family history, biotopes and a punk festival, always touched by the invisible radiation. The entanglement of documentary and fantastic elements spans the field, which is marked by the destruction caused by mining as much as by the careful actions of the human and non-human inhabitants.

Sophie Hilbert produces videos and costumes. She was a scholarship holder of the Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprogramm Berlin and has a degree from the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Her video works have been shown at the Kasseler Dokfest, the Werkleitz Festival, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (online) and at the Kommunale Galerie Berlin. She is a member of TOKONOMA e.V. – platform for young art and club culture.