Memories of the Mountain

Every built volume requires a negative space, elsewhere. The city expands, the mountain fades. Piece by piece, it is carved away, leaving behind the voids—forgetting there was a time when the mountain was a part of us. How long does it take to re-member what has been forgotten? Geology has its own kind of entropy. Everything is gradually wearing down. Little by little, wind erodes rock, water carries away the riverbanks. This irreversible process continuously metamorphosizes our earth. However, by extracting natural materials for the building of our cities, we intervene with geological entropy in a very different way. Resources are manually carved out from the great mountain to supply the construction of thriving cities. As a result, the landscape is reshaped by endless quarries. While mining technology advances faster than ever, the seemingly immovable mountain, formed slowly over millions of years, now undergoes new anthropocentric-geological transformations with inconceivable speed. In this context, the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (VAC) is excited to present a site-specific exhibition in collaboration with Studio Pararaum—a Toronto-Zürich design and architecture collaborative established by Meng Li and Linda Zhang. Featuring photography collaborations with Félix Michaud and film collaborations with Christian Flemm, Memories of the Mountain combines ceramic formwork with creative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to investigate alternative approaches to the culture around building—reimagining our relationship to geological extraction through architecture, urban design, and technology. These impressions became a point of departure for a series of new material operations produced by the collaborative. Using ceramic casting, analogue filmmaking, digital photography, and generative artificial intelligence, Studio Pararaum brings the mine’s haunting voids into our presence at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. As mining technology advances faster than ever, the seemingly immovable mountain, formed slowly over millions of years, now undergoes new anthropocentric transformations with inconceivable speed. Li and Zhang challenge us to confront the mine’s existence on a global scale, contesting with geological time to evoke a profound sense of sublime estrangement within their sculptural installations. In December 2023, the entrance to Gipsbergwerk Schleitheim collapsed, rendering the mine inaccessible. Where the cave ends, memory begins. Memories of the Mountain is organized by the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, the European Ceramic Workcentre, Tucker’s Pottery Supplies, and Pottery Supply House.