ONE YEAR-LONG RESEARCH PROJECT / FIFTH:
KATRIN HORNEK

Hornek’s previous focus has been the act of breathing and the molecular study of carbon dioxide as a substance that throws light on the entanglement of the human body, natural resources and human activities. For her research in South Tyrol, she has turned to the process of digestion. Here Hornek looks into the history of Sinigo, a district of Merano where Mussolini established an ammonia factory as part of a stringent program of Southern Tyrolean industrialization and self-sufficiency for Italy. When built, this factory was the second largest in Europe after Germany’s IG Farben. Hornek follows this path and ultimately arrives at the present-day use of ammonia and the consequences of its production, which provide fertile ground for the expansion of the chemicals industry. Hornek will develop her research over the course of this year.

Katrin Hornek is an artist based in Vienna. She has been addressing the transformation and fracturing of contemporary societies in the Anthropocene epoch for many years. Her research-based installations, videos and curatorial projects tend to promote a more complex understanding of the entanglement of nature and culture – most recently at the Riga Biennial (2020), the exhibition Hysterical Mining at Kunsthalle Wien (2019) and until 2022 in an interdisciplinary research project on ‘The Anthropocene Surge’ (together with Michael Wagreich, member of the Anthropocene Working Group).