New fieldwork project
My upcoming fieldwork stay will take place in September 2027 on the French Atlantic island of Quessant.
I recently read an article in the daily newspaper *taz* about this island, which lies in the department of Finistère – the ‘end of the world’ (Finis terrae) – and on the edge of the Parc d’Iroise, France’s first marine nature reserve. In 1978, the oil tanker ‘Amoco Cadiz’ ran aground north-east of Ouessant, resulting in a devastating oil spill and environmental disaster for the whole of Brittany. The article focused on sustainable fishing and a couple of fishermen who fish using traditional methods and collaborate with the national marine research institute. As I read, I found so many connections to my past and current explorations that Ouessant will be the first fieldwork island in my new long-term project ‘on us in earth’.
‘on us in earth’ is currently taking shape: on the one hand, fundamentally from my planetary artistic reflection on the climate catastrophe; and on the other, very specifically from certain aspects of my previous long-term series and methods. I am focusing on climate change as one of the nine planetary boundaries, on the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which forms part of the global water circulation system known as ‘thermohaline circulation’. Plans include several fieldwork stays on islands in the Atlantic and the development of methods for working with movements and changes along coastlines, as well as accompanying collaborations with scientific institutes specialising in Earth system, climate and ocean research.
The collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW) has led to the first works on the fundamental principles and methodologies of climate research, which were shown in May 2026 as part of the exhibition ‘Bach runter Strom auf’ at the Munch Haus in Warnemünde.