Terra Moderna - Belval

PAE - BeHave, Le Fonds Belval, Belval, Luxembourg 2016.
30 wooden tablets painted with industrially exploited soils as pigments. Each tablet: 24 x 33 x 2 cm. Soil, wooden plates, gesso, glue, aluminium frame.

Terra Moderna is a collection of painted tablets, presented as a soil pantone, made with pigments from exploited soils in agriculture as well as in industry. Observing how rocky grounds are turned into dust with the use of powerful machines in order to prepare the ground for agricultural cultivation, or to extract precious minerals alludes to the way pigments were made in the past. Interestingly, pigments were precious commodities and the idea of processing the poorest and most exploited soil in the same way, as something so exclusive, was very fascinating.

This work is part of the Schlak project, the result of a six months residency in Belval, Luxembourg. Public Art Experience - BeHave was curated by Stéphanie Delcroix and Michael Pinsky.

Many thanks to Paco Dalmau for assisting the production of Terra Moderna Belval.