SAVOIR-VIVRE #8
SOIL WORKSHOP
at ar/ge kunst
with Bernd Felderer, agronomist and soil scientist, Ecorecycling, Lana
with artist Katrin Hornek in attendance
curated by BAU
“We’re Treating Soil Like Dirt. It’s a Fatal Mistake, as Our Lives Depend on It”
George Monbiot, 2015
A handful of soil contains more micro-organisms than there are humans living on Earth. It would take days, months, years to understand how these different life-forms interact, communicate, collaborate. But how can we learn to appreciate and better care for the invisible ecosystems in the ground beneath our feet? This workshop with agronomist and soil scientist Bernd Felderer will provide insights into the complex nature of co-existence in the soil and how its fertility is bound up with the actions of humans and more-than-humans. Participants are invited to bring soil samples from their own gardens; these samples will then be tested for granulation, Ph value, lime and humus content in the temporary gallery laboratory at ar/ge kunst.
The workshop takes place in the context of Katrin Hornek’s exhibition Plant Plant, a co-production between ar/ge kunst and BAU. Katrin Hornek’s artistic practice has always advocated a more complex conception of nature and culture. The eponymous video installation Plant Plant investigates traces of ammonia – in the human body, in the air, in the soil, in the steel pipes of a fertilizer factory. The artist will be present at the workshop to show participants around the exhibition.
The Soil workshop is part of the workshop series savoir–vivre, which is conceived in parallel to the ar/ge kunst exhibition programme. The title savoir-vivre is based on a re-reading of the terms savoir and pouvoir in the work of Gayatri Spivak, co-founder of postcolonial theory, where knowledge (savoir) is not only linked to power but also to the condition of being able to (pouvoir). This combination of verbs turns the institution into a public space of negotiation and agency where an exploration of different forms of skills and competences produces collective knowledge.
Agronomist and soil scientist Bernd Felderer was born in 1979 in Deventer (NL) and lives in Merano. After graduating in agriculture from the Universität für Bodenkunde in Vienna, he completed his research doctorate at the ETH in 2013. After various professional and academic experiences abroad, he has been a partner in the company ECORECYCLING, which runs a laboratory for chemical soil analysis, since 2016.
maximum 20 participants
attendance free
language: deu/ita
registration at [email protected]
Participation only with Green Pass
