Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm

Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm is built on Kasia Molga’s belief that it is important to gather information and stories to help us hold onto the memory of our fading natural environment. As landscapes slowly change and disappear, both from the physical world and from our consciousness (in a process called Landscape Amnesia), it becomes easy to get lost in the current narrative about biodiversity and the climate crisis. But how do we convey the importance of a natural space to a younger generation who never experiences it?

The project involves a series of works realized in various mediums, in a collaborative process that spans across multiple European countries and organizations. It includes a series of sculptures of assembled copper parts, mainly from computers – used in processor units, graphic cards, or cooling systems -, that will be surrendered to verdigris, by speeding up their degradation to create pigment. The pigment will be used to create a series of paintings (using the same technique as Renaissance artists), depicting plants that become locally extinct or endangered due to our technological expansion. The culminating point will be a VR experience created through an international community-based project, using this tool to fight for a green space that now only exists in the memories of our elders.

As Kasia puts it: “the world we live in is a world of ever-expanding industrialization. It can be easy to forget that the environment we see around us did not always look this way”.

The Romanian stage of the project focuses on three key research and production areas:

Scientific research: in partnership with the Institute of Biology, Bucharest, we will examine the plant biodiversity in Bucharest, focusing on a specific area alongside the Dâmbovița river – specifically between Lacul Morii and Grozăvești, an area profoundly impacted by the buildings that were built in the 1990s and 2000s to host the myriad of young workers employed by the newly established IT industry.

Cultural research, via ethnographic interviews with elderly people, exploring the fading collective memory of our natural environments. The stories collected will form the narrative foundation of the future VR experience, adding the Romanian stories to the international community-based chronicles. This inclusive approach, focusing on often marginalized groups, particularly the elderly, enriches the dialogue around ecological and cultural preservation, ensuring diverse voices are recorded.

3D and technical research: built as a practice-based paid internship for students in the 3D & Animation department at the National University of Theatre and Film “IL Caragiale” (UNATC), this component will allow students to build 3D models for the plants identified during the scientific research stage, that will be afterwards incorporated into the VR experience, while at the same time measuring the resource consumption and environmental impact of the process.

The resulting works will be showcased in an intermedia exhibition featuring painting, sculpture, video, and 3D rendering, in November 2024 at Goethe Institut in Bucharest. This exhibition, accompanied by curatorial tours and open round tables, serves as a dynamic platform for public engagement and education on biodiversity and ecological responsibility.

The project’s aims to foster a deeper understanding of the ecological challenges we face, our direct connection to them, and to inspire individual and collective action. By blending scientific rigor with artistic creativity, Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm underscores the interconnectedness of cultural memory and environmental responsibility. As curator Claudia Schnugg mentions: “For a society seeking constant technological progress, environmental issues, and new forms of cultural expression, it is central for artists to ask questions that go hand in hand with societal endeavors. It is inspiring that we are able to carve out specific stories about places in Romania with local people, researchers from the humanities and from biology.”

The first public showcase of the Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm project was as a work in progress, during Intersecting Realities exhibition in June 2023, in the context of Timișoara European Capital of Culture 2023.

Excerpt from the curatorial statement: “Chronicles from In-Between 495 to 570 nm by Kasia Molga expands environmental issues related to the entanglement of society, environment, and technology. How to deal with the duality of the potential new media, such as the growing use and applicability of technological media, and the growing land use and environmental impact that is driven by the progress of this development? As an example of art production which is often inspired by the beauty of nature, the artist explores the phenomenon of “landscape amnesia”, and human emotions and memories in the context of the loss of landscapes adapted to the Romanian local context. In a mix of digital and physical media, Kasia Molga creates a multi-layered experience with the role of copper“ [Text by Claudia Schnugg and Andrei Tudose]

Kasia Molga – artist

Design fusionist and media artist questioning the impact of accelerating technology on our perception of the natural environment and our relation to other-than-human makers of the living world.

Dr. Claudia Schnugg – curator

Researcher and curator with an interdisciplinary background in social sciences, business administration, cultural sciences, and the arts. She is a curator in the fields of art & science collaboration, organizational aesthetics, embodied knowledge, and artistic interventions. [website]

Andrei Tudose – curator

Curator and cultural manager, co-founder of Marginal and VAGon. With a background in marketing research, sociology and visual studies, he facilitates transdisciplinary approaches, at the border between art, social sciences and technology, challenging the public to take a participative stance towards societal issues.

Dr. Roxana Nicoară, Scientific researcher

Scientific researcher at the Institute of Biology Bucharest, Ecology, Taxonomy and Nature Conservation Department, holding a PHD in biology.

Irina-Anca Bobei, Cultural researcher

Interdisciplinary researcher, currently working on Critical Plant Studies – liminal plants in the city, plants in speculative fiction and ruderal imaginaries. Other research areas include visual construction of the Anthropocene and the representation of non-human migration in the visual arts, non-human mobility theories, landscape theory, and ecohorror narratives. She is part of the Specula group, an artistic and editorial collective.

Partners:

Institute of Biology Bucharest, UNATC, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Dark Euphoria, Polish Institute in Bucharest, Goethe Institut, Austrian Cultural Forum

Media partners:
Leonardo/Olats, Radio România Cultural, Zile și Nopți, IQads, Ziarul Metropolis, Revista Golan, Happ.ro.

Chronicles from In-Between is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.