Toxic Leftovers of Collecting

Toxic Leftovers of Collecting

DOI of the original publication

URI

https://irf.fhnw.ch/handle/11654/49440

Project type

angewandte Forschung

Project start

11/2021

Project end

06/2022

Project status

abgeschlossen

Description

Abstract

Since the 1990s, collecting practices and associated issues such as contamination and toxicity have increasingly come into focus due to the growing ecological and political relevance of objects and materials. Little epistemic relevance, however, has been attributed to the leftovers: They challenge collecting institutions emerging during transformative processes of differentiation, purification, and reevaluation as well as in transgressions of taxonomic, disciplinary, architectural, and institutional boundaries. A specific focus on this marginalia is the audiovisual research "Toxic Leftovers of Collecting". It accompanies and analyzes cleaning and transformation processes of contaminated materials. The aim is to give insights into those relational contexts of more-than-human ecologies and their tracings, as well as to planetary conditions regarding toxins ultimately accumulated in landfills. As a case study the audiovisual research on cleaning processes of asbestos-contaminated vintage cars belonging to the collection of a Swiss foundation outlines the field of tension in which collecting activities are fundamentally situated today, especially in the case of toxicity of collection items: a balancing act between preservation and elimination, between restoration, remediation and disposal. It means a deepened examination of dangers caused by pollutants such as asbestos, arsenic, lindane or heavy metals, which are built into objects due to their properties or were used for conservation purposes.

Link

https://criticalmedialab.ch/projects/toxic-leftovers-of-collecting/

Created during FHNW affiliation

Yes

Strategic action fields FHNW

Zero Emission

School

Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel FHNW

Institute

Institut Experimentelles Design und Medienkulturen

Financed by

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Project partner

Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte SKKG
Bafob
Analysis Lab Bern
Exzellenzcluster Matters of Activity/Forschungsprojekt Object Space Agency, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Contracting authority

SAP reference

Keywords

Audiovisuelle Forschung
Toxine
Asbest
Handling-/Reinigungsprozesse Sammlungsobjekte

Subject (DDC)

700 - Künste und Unterhaltung

Publications

Publication

Toxische Überreste des Sammelns

(De Gruyter, 2022) Caviezel, Flavia; Samuel, Nina; Sattler, Felix

- Eine audiovisuelle Forschung fokussiert die Reinigungs- und Handlingprozesse von asbestbelasteten Objekten einer Schweizer Stiftungssammlung - Reste fordern Sammelinstitutionen heraus. Sie sind Kippfiguren, die an Überschreitungen der taxonomischen, disziplinären, architektonischen und institutionellen Grenzen mitarbeiten, und überall anzutreffen sind, im Ausstellungsraum wie im Depot. Einen spezifischen Fokus auf diese Marginalie richtet die vorliegende künstlerische Forschung zu toxischen Überresten. Sie begleitet, dokumentiert und analysiert Reinigungsprozesse asbestbelasteter Oldtimer-Wagen aus der Sammlung der Winterthurer Stiftung für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte SKKG. Die vielfältigen Erkenntnisse zu diesen Handlings- und Transformationsprozessen, sowie zu planetarischen Zusammenhängen der letztlich in Abfalldeponien akkumulierten Toxine sind in einem bildbasierten Essay zusammengefasst. Dieser Beitrag ist während eines Forschungsaustauschs (SNF Scientific Exchange Grant) am Cluster Matters of Activity der Humboldt-Universität Berlin entstanden.

Publication

Tracing Toxicity. Following routes and temporalities of a collection vintage car’s contaminants by artistic research practices

(10/2024) Caviezel, Flavia

The basis for this contribution is the essay, “Toxic Leftovers of Collecting” (Caviezel 2022: 69-78), which deals with the processes involved in decontaminating asbestos-contaminated vintage cars in a Swiss foundation’s collection. Extending the body of research to its relational contexts of more-than-human ecologies, this contribution focuses on asbestos and rubber components that contain asbestos, both of which are built into vintage cars. Following the traces of these materials offers insight into the post-/colonial entanglements of the mining, processing, and trading industries. Tracing as a practice of artistic research addresses the fragmentary nature of those transnational ecologies and the emerging multivocal, multilocal, and multisensory narratives by spinning mental networks between the multifaceted fragments connected to the collection objects.

Publication

Toxic leftovers

(07.12.2021) Caviezel, Flavia

Full item page