UHAUS Gallery, Ostrava, Czech Republic, 2023
The exhibition was created as the culmination of my residency in Ostrava. During my stay, I focused on activities related to the history of the industrial district of Vitkovice in Ostrava. I expanded my research to include searching for the remains of mines that no longer exist.
The implementation of the exhibition in one of the two remaining U-Dům was an important summary of these activities for me. These buildings were built as part of the construction of New Vitkovice at the end of the 19th century as houses for employees of the local ironworks.
In the project "Bez Obav" (Without Fears), I focused on a performative dialogue with the spaces of the former Vitkovice Ironworks, as well as on the exploration of the remains of the former mine activity, such as the Ema spoil tip. This incredible spoil tip gives an image of the devastation caused by the exploration of mine deposits. Due to poor management, the interior of the spoil tip is still burning today. The internal fire reaches a temperature of almost 1600 degrees Celsius, which allows the formation of stones such as porcelanite and jasper inside. The surface of the mountain has its own thermophilic microflora and steppe fauna. These are not invasive species, but native plants and bacteria from ancient geological periods, when the climate in Eastern Europe was completely different than during the reign of man.
The exhibition consisted of recordings of performative projections made in the former spaces of the Witkowice Steelworks, recordings displayed on smartphones from woodworking plants and coal warehouses, a still operating steel foundry, and negative recordings of the surface of the heap from a bird's eye view.
The exhibition is complemented by symbolic fragments of the heap - waste rock arranged in a mound in the middle of the space and patterns on the surface of the gallery floor made of aluminum tape referring to the space of the city of Ostrava strewn with pipes and cables.
The entire exhibition was complemented by an ambient sound composition. It was based mainly on recordings from the still operating pipe mill in Vitkowice, with the addition of sounds from active metal processing plants in Ostrava.
