OTHER WORLD(S) IN BECOMING, 2022

The ground carries us and carries records of past events and future potentials.

The processes that take place in it span through different periods of time and involve a multitude of beings who are continuously transforming the soil. Soil chromatography offers the possibility to display these connections, encounters and influences within a patch of soil.

Different patterns and colours provide information ab- out the composition of a sample and in this way reveal the remains of the soil‘s history.

At the same time, a chromatogram also points to possibilities for the future of the area from which the sample was taken. Over the course of six months, I collected soil samples from various locations in Vienna – from the Danube floodplains in Lobau to the trees along the Ringstraße and public parks to my own small herb garden in the courtyard of my apartment building in Ottakring.

The chromatograms, together with their soil samples, transform into bodies – strange beings we can interact with and which not only give us insight into the hidden histories of the places they come from, but also invite us to imagine dif- ferent future scenarios for the city we share with so many other (human and non-human) beings.