Snow Pillars

„There is no antidote,…, against the opium of time. The winter sun shows how soon the light fades from the ash, how soon the night enfolds us. Hour upon hour is added to the sum. Time itself grows old. Pyramids, arches and obelisks are melting pillars of snow.“

- W.G Sebald - The Rings of Saturn

The long history of a white stone.

One of the rarest kinds of marble in the world is found in the town of Lasa in South Tyrol. Still to this day it is only mined from a small quarry in the mountains above the village. The metamorphic rock that is known for its total whiteness is formed through steady pressure on the minerals deep inside the mountain. Thereby making it a record of geological time.

Yet the most famous application of the material is its prominent use in statues and landmarks all around the globe. Through traveling to these other sites and performing history by means of silent objects and gestures. The stone also becomes a metaphorical container that condenses and records human memory.

Understanding these different ways the material is connected to memory and place. „Snow Pillars“ engages with the connections between the marble, the landscape it is extracted from and the application as a container of memory. The work incorporates photograms and staged photography with images taken around the landscape of Lasa. Thereby looking at the multiple layers of reference through which the rock can be observed.