Satellite Salon // Geological Time

an evening of art-science conversations

with presentations by:
Professor Achim Brauer, Ilana Halperin, Simon Faithfull

Berlin Kreuzberg
Wednesday 30th March 2011

Our presenters:

Professor Achim Brauer is head of the Section ‘Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution’ at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and a lecturer at the University of Potsdam. He studied Physical Geography and Geology and his expertise is in sedimentology and palaeoclimatology. Professor Brauer will give an overview of his own research interests which includes a precise determination of time in geological records in relation to the dynamics of abrupt climate changes and the driving mechanisms of natural climate change. With specific reference to traces of volcanic activity found in preserved lake mud, Professor Brauer will talk about how  such natural archives allows scientists to establish long calendars of many thousand of years of ‘volcanic history’.

Ilana Halperin (Glasgow) is an artist whose practice spans the geological and cultural landscape of volcanoes, earthquakes and caves, scrutinising our understanding of geological time and the formation of new landmass. Her working approach combines fieldwork experience in remote outdoor locations, museums, archives and laboratories with studio-based practice and consists of research with specialists from a wide variety of disciplines to develop each project. Ilana will be talking about some of her previous work as well as her current project engaging with the connections between the body and geology.

Simon Faithfull is an artist whose practice could be seen as an attempt understand and measure the earth as sculptural object. Recent projects include documentation of the journey of a domestic chair as it travels to the edge of space, daily drawings sent back from a two month journey to Antarctica and an absurd journey exactly along the Greenwich Meridian – crawling over, under or through what obstacles were met.

Our guests:

Yves Chaudouët is an artist who uses all sorts of means to explore strange, multiple worlds as he weaves fresh links between different disciplines. In Tiefseefische, for example, his childhood memories and a fascination with the sea are the inspiration for his  fragile, precious species from the deep made of glass: fish, starfish, and sea monsters, (almost) imaginary beings which form an oceanic bestiary.

Pauline Hanson is a writer and curator based in Berlin, working with Valeska Bührer on Severalpursuits –  cultural investigations of different forms and durations. Recent pursuits include a publication on the Brasilian artist Alice Miceli and a conference on Failure in Contemporary Art. A programme of walks to visit a variety of different private Berlin collections  is in the pipeline

Julia Martin is an artist and landscape architect based in Berlin and London. A PhD candidate at Goldsmiths College, her research focusses on the development of ecocritical artistic practice and hyperextended ecological objects. It includes hiking, collage, installation, video, and speculative documentation.

Allesandra Pace is a curator and writer with wide experience in art-science initiatives. Recent projects include The Glass Delusion at The National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK (2010) and the current exhibition Broke Fall (Organic) at Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna.

Laura Schleussner is curator at Kunstverein Göttingen. She attended the De Appel Curatorial Training Program and directed the project space Rocket Shop in Berlin for four years.

Image: Ilana Halperin, Physical Geology Plate IV. Hard ground copperplate etching with watercolour, 2009. Courtesy the artist.