From September through the end of October 2024, three workshop talks took place that were about the collaboration between the artists malatsion and Carolin Kropff. This collaboration is based on the art project New Skin For A Landscape, initiated by malatsion; Carolin Kropff introduced wool as an artistic material. The series of events concluded with a short-term exhibition, during which the booklet New Skin For A Landscape was introduced.
Both artists are committed to meticulous research: malatsion focuses on integrating scientific findings into her artistic practice, while Carolin Kropff explores craft techniques and the historical contexts of textile materials. The insights gained from this process serve as inspiration and a foundation for their ongoing artistic work.
New Skin For A Landscape
The idea of the “new skin” of the landscape is based on positive examples of transforming landscapes into sponge landscapes. Through the medium of art and community engagement, the goal is to create a “monumental costume” or a “garment of nature” for an imaginary landscape adapted to climate change. This “monumental costume” becomes a symbol of resilience and adaptability—and demonstrates that collaboration and artistic engagement can open up new perspectives and approaches for a more sustainable future.
Carolin Kropff contributed raw wool as an artistic material, which was tested and used to develop the first model of an ideal sponge landscape. With its ability to store water, protect against cold, heat, and fire, and serve as a malleable fiber, wool offers an ideal analogy to a versatile soil structure. At the same time, working with wool requires and fosters collaboration and collective action.
malatsion elaborates on her idea in the brochure. You can find the text on the exhibition’s website.
Carolin Kropff provides information about wool in Gestampfte Masse. You can also find the text there.
“STAY TRUE TO THE EARTH!”
A Workshop Talk with Carolin Kropff and malatsion
by Angelica Horn
The call, indeed the invocation that Friedrich Nietzsche makes in his Zarathustra, is to remain true to the earth and to fulfil the purpose of the earth accordingly. This could also be applied to our time and the collaborative work of the artists malatsion and Carolin Kropff. Nietzsche's appeal was linked to the idea of not giving in to supernatural hopes. Today it is linked to the idea of not jeopardising the preservation of the earth as a place for human life for the sake of capital and power interests and specific human needs, but instead to ensure healthy and good conditions. It is well known that humans have caused problems through their artificial interventions, and that they must now over-come them as far as possible. The art project New Skin For A Landscape, initiated by malatsion, offers a change of perspective and an awareness of interrela-tionships and of options for action.
The last of three workshop talks in a series in 2024 is about wet felting. The table is prepared: mats are laid out, with towels on top, thin nets on top, and specially cut-out pieces of leather on top. The partici-pants are welcomed with a cup of tea and then the shared work begins. The washed raw wool from a local sheep is plucked and placed in layers of parallel bundles on, and overlapping, the pieces of leather and pressed firmly, both vertically and horizontally or vice versa. Then the piece of leather is turned over, the overlapping parts are bent over and the underside is also covered with fibre bundles. Finally, the piece is watered and rolled up and felted vigorously. Soap is used to create additional cohesion and compaction. The finished piece is cut open, the piece of leather removed, and the result is a section of the landscape surface that can be placed on a prepared landscape relief.
Carolin Kropff leads the activities and describes the special features of the raw wool material, talks about its recent history and the long human tradition of felting in the context of other production techniques, other human inventions and the myths associated with it. The activities involve sensing the material and engaging with its peculiarity; it is about gaining awa-reness, even if one does not explicitly realise this. The natural material demands its own appreciation, and
unbelievably, according to EU standards it is only considered as waste to be disposed of. Silence permeates the room during the work, even so stories are told and conversations take place; it is a silence that expresses an attitude of appreciation. Carolin Kropff refers to the importance and tradition of textile art.
malatsion then presents projects in various countries around the world where, with seemingly simple means, amazing successes have been achieved of retaining water in the landscape. They could prevent drought, promote plant growth, prevent flooding and change the local climate. These are simple natural measures, such as creating drainless depressions and ditches, planting hedges or building wooden barriers for water-courses. malatsion uses illustrations to explain various climate models and projects, with particular attention being paid to models for the local climate of certain regions. The artist talks about art projects in the spe-cific area. Attention and awareness are to be gained, with an artistic project such as that of a new landscape surface being able to show and give form to analogue structures.
This evening, the message of the workshop talks is: we can do something. Each of us can do something, if we deal with the natural and nature with awareness of their own appreciation, and act accordingly. In one evening we can sense an attitude in our own activities and experiences that can also have a lasting impact on us. The effect is ultimately about the inner nature and inner landscapes of people. New Skin For A Landscape seeks to encourage knowledge-based action that is committed to caring and preserving, thus fulfilling the "sense of the earth". Collaborative work and endeavour create a feeling for fellow human beings and fellow creatures on earth. People work together with the artists, creating a temporary community. In addition to processes of exchanging and working together as an artistic practice, the project envisages the creation of an expansive landscape model as an artistic installation. We can look forward to this.
.
©Angelica Horn
Frankfurt am Main 2024
