2016
Collective Disaster (Valentina Karga, Pieterjan Grandry, Andrea Sollazzo, Louisa Vermoere, Tessa Zettel, Robin Weber)
Compost mountain, copper pipes, bath, ceramic tiles, plants
Public artwork commission, Les Hortillonages d’Amiens, Amiens (France), 2016.
Miracle Mountain combines knowledge from alchemy, geobiology, composting and healing practices. Visitors and neighbors of Les Hortillonages d’Amiens (a complex of shared gardens in Amiens) can enjoy a calm social space, dipping their feet in hot water with healing qualities. The installation is composed of a positive and a negative volume, a giant compost pile and a water reservoir. Water flows from one to the other, alternating between hot and cold due to the heat generated by the fermentation of compost. As an alchemical device, its layout takes the symbolic shape of the philosopher’s stone. Harmonious alternation is produced by the copper pipes, improving the structure of the water to create an electromagnetic field that transfers an amplified positive energy to bathers and other human and non-human users of the space.
