The Resonance of Waste, 2020

Placed in the disused sewage pumping station, the loudspeaker diaphragm uses paper made from the Baltic Sea seaweed, which blooms exceptionally profusely due to the flow of nitrate-rich sewage from agriculture and paper production into the sea. Dense thickets of seaweed create “dead zones,” devoid of naturally occurring plants and fish. The recordings played through the loudspeaker are the sounds of the paper bleaching process in the chemical plant in Złotniki, Wrocław. Distorted by the unusual properties of the seaweed membranes, the recordings are audible representations of water pollution and the hidden costs of the production methods used in the interlinked chemical, agricultural and paper industries. And this is how the world ends, Not with a bang but with a whimper (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men).

photo: Małgorzata Kujda