Artists Marwa Arsanios, Rose-Anne Gush & Philipp Sattler, PARA, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Paulina Semkowicz
Curator Rose-Anne Gush, Philipp Sattler, Johanna Pichlbauer, Robin Klengel
Venue Forum Stadtpark, Graz
Images courtesy of Silvia Hödl & Forum Stadtpark
Somewhere below the Weinebene, between Styria and Carinthia, one of the largest lithium deposits in the EU can be found. The deposit was discovered at the height of the nuclear age; in the search for uranium, geologists found lithium instead, worthless at the time. Privatised decades ago for a “symbolic shilling”, the “Traudl-Stollen” (“Traudl Tunnel”) and all associated mining rights now belong to an American-Australian mining group. “Critical Metals” plans to mine the light metal in Carinthia, process it in Saudi Arabia, and sell it to BMW as “European Lithium”. A legally, ideally, and materially hollowed-out mountain is the symbol of the relationship between people and landscape in late capitalism.
The exhibition takes this local example as an opportunity to reflect on the connection between property and mountains in times of planetary and neo-colonial extraction regimes: How is it possible that individuals or companies can own mountains (and their treasures)? What symbolic, legal, and material means, and historical precedents, do states and corporations draw on to take possession of alpine landscapes? And how can we succeed in emancipating landscapes from the curse of ownership?
