UnWorlding (Saliera), 2024
2 channel video installation (full HD, color, stereo sound) 15:28 min,
salt, recycled wooden loogs, tree branches
Benvenuto Cellini’s Saliera (1540–43), an elaborate salt cellar with juxtaposed allegories of Earth and Sea that was stolen in 2003 from the Kunsthistorisches Museum and later retrieved in a forest in Lower Austria, is recast as an actual salt block and once again placed in the woods, where it dissolves on animal tongues and in other exposing elements.
In the exhibition space, the salt version is displayed in a makeshift forest that visitors can wander through, no different from the deer in the adjoining video documentation.
The work delves into the intricate relationship between the over-exploitation of forests and salt mining in the Salzkammergut region of the Styrian Alps, where historically, salt resources were highly prized, often referred to as 'white gold'.
This project was commissioned by KunstHausWien for the Klima Biennale 2024 and realized in collaboration with the Austrian Federal Forests.
photocredits Thomas Kranabitl/ Österreichische Bundesforste annd Joanna Pianka / eSel
2 channel video installation (full HD, color, stereo sound) 15:28 min,
salt, recycled wooden loogs, tree branches
Benvenuto Cellini’s Saliera (1540–43), an elaborate salt cellar with juxtaposed allegories of Earth and Sea that was stolen in 2003 from the Kunsthistorisches Museum and later retrieved in a forest in Lower Austria, is recast as an actual salt block and once again placed in the woods, where it dissolves on animal tongues and in other exposing elements.
In the exhibition space, the salt version is displayed in a makeshift forest that visitors can wander through, no different from the deer in the adjoining video documentation.
The work delves into the intricate relationship between the over-exploitation of forests and salt mining in the Salzkammergut region of the Styrian Alps, where historically, salt resources were highly prized, often referred to as 'white gold'.
This project was commissioned by KunstHausWien for the Klima Biennale 2024 and realized in collaboration with the Austrian Federal Forests.
photocredits Thomas Kranabitl/ Österreichische Bundesforste annd Joanna Pianka / eSel