Petrified Times at Berliner Naturkundemuseum

From 27 August to 1 September, the "Petrified Times" project group of the Netzwerk Naturwissen is presenting an artistic intervention in the Mineral Hall of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin that combines science and art. The artists Ulrike Mohr and Susanne Kriemann are showing their works with the energy sources coal and uraninite. The aesthetic quality of these materials can be experienced through their works of art. They also provide insights into the invisible, complex connections and changes in the ecosystem as well as the elusive time dimensions of planetary material cycles. The intervention will conclude with a round table on 2 September at 5 pm.

The Anthropocene is potentially also the last epoch of Homo sapiens if it continues to destroy nature on an unprecedented scale and destroys the livelihoods of human societies. 

As part of the Netzwerk Naturwissen, the project group "Petrified Times: Energising Past Futures" approaches this topic from the perspective of coal and nuclear energy, which have shaped the history of industrial societies and the planet. This is realised by two artistic research projects in which the dimension of aesthetic experience and engagement is used to convey invisible, complex relationships in the ecosystem and planetary material cycles and their temporal dimensions. 

To this end, the artists Ulrike Mohr and Susanne Kriemann are working with the collections of minerals, rocks and palaeobotany at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Coal and uraninite (pitchblende) symbolise the industrial revolution on the one hand and the atomic age on the other. They render the thematic complex of the development of societies' energy requirements attainable. At the same time, the temporal dimensions behind the energy resources and their utilisation in contemporary cultures become tangible: The sheer immeasurable temporal dimensions behind the energy resources and their utilisation in contemporary cultures. Dimensions of time behind energy resources, and their radical consumption since the beginning of the Anthropocene just 70 years ago.

This intervention combines art and science in a unique way and invites visitors to rediscover the holdings of the mineralogical and palaeobotanical sub-collections of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin through an aesthetic lens.The intervention will conclude with a round table on 2 September 2024 at 5 pm. At its centre will be the artistic works and interdisciplinary perspectives of experts from science, politics, administration and art. The aim is to explore the different aesthetic, historical, social and political layers of meaning surrounding the themes of coal/industrial revolution and uraninite/atomic age with questions of temporality and planetary material cycles.

We cordially invite you to take part in this open lab discussion. Places are limited, so registration is necessary. You can register for the round table at NetzwerkNaturwissen@mfn.berlin 

The project was developed as part of the Netzwerk Naturwissen, an initiative of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and its partners from Berlin and Brandenburg.