The Berlin artist Oliver Thie preserves the shadows of rocks and reveals their long history.

For over two hundred years, the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin stores a collection of unimposing gray basalt specimens. They are evidence of a heated controversy about the origins of the earth known as the basalt dispute, which took place in the 18th century. Oliver Thie has explored these objects in an interdisciplinary dialogue with scientists from the Humboldt-Universität and the Museum für Naturkunde.

By combining the recording techniques of historical instruments with shadow projections, Oliver Thie developed his very own artistic method for capturing shadow images. In a kind of `` a drawing excavation,`` as Thie puts it, the shadows of the stones are worked out of paper covered with soot. Like black skins, the preserved silhouettes now float in front of the wall and can be viewed in full light. An individuality emerges from the shadows that would otherwise remain hidden in the unimposing stones.

Curator: Felix Sattler