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The Nature of Things (2013) - Light intervention, in collaboration with Elisa Balmaceda in the Brachland (wasteland) of Freies Kunst Territorium (FKT). Six LED Spotlights, electricity and a found artificial hill (aprox. 10 m. high and 20 m. diameter). Bochum, Germany.
Conceived for the exhibition Searching for the white cube. (Exhibition Catalogue PDF)

The Nature of Things seeks to confront the industrial, urban, historical and natural phenomena that constitute this wasteland and its area in particular (Bochum and the Ruhr), using as a minimal gesture architectural lighting to lit a hill that is located in the middle of this empty lot.

A green hill, covered with trees and bushes looks natural at first sight, but once getting closer one realizes it is in fact originated from the remains of the industrial ruins and waste material left by the steel industry that used to be installed there. As time passed by this hill has been wildly taken by nature, just like the whole 20 hectares that conform this nowadays-empty lot. The act of illuminating the hill, making it thus visible at night as an architectural Landmark, reveals, on the one hand, the power of nature over its origins as post-industrial Landscape. And, on the other hand, it reveals its artificiality once again, poetically highlighting all that architecturally and historically became invisible there.


Light installation in the wasteland near FKT view from the east, Bochum, Germany 2013

Light installation view from the east<br /> Revealing its artificiality in a post-industrial landscape, 'Nature of Things' highlights partially that which architecturally and historically became invisible there. While specific social, political, and economic orders value space and life differentially, lionizing some lives and spaces and dismissing others, Bataille’s work suggests that life itself could not but multiply and expand into the abandoned space. One of the rooms of 'Freies Kunst Territorium' available for resident artists, was taken and transformed to an installation of lit table with images, artefacts, found objects from the field, writings, and gatherings of the project. Overview of the installation 'the nature of things' 2013 Bochum <br /> Ruins are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete, as time went by, have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction. Natural disaster, war, and depopulation are the most common root causes, with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and scavenging. There are famous ruins all over the world, from ancient sites in China, the Indus valley and Judea to Zimbabwe in Africa, ancient Greek, Egyptian and Roman sites in the Mediterranean basin, and Incan and Mayan sites in the Americas. Ruins are of great importance to historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and artists, whether they were once individual fortifications, places of worship, workshop and utility buildings, or entire villages, towns and cities.

© 2014 Sina Seifee