Giuseppe Licari (Erice, Sicily, 1980) presented his slag stone collection in the form of a contemporary mineralogical cabinet of the anthropocene. He extracted pigments from the slag stones, as artists used to obtain pigments from precious stones. His pictures of the post-industrial landscape, with strange colours and artificial hills up to fifty meters high, are both alarming and fascinating.
Landscape images and mineral collections once helped inform the idea that nature is a wealth of products and raw materials, making its exploitation seem natural. Licari’s photographs and mineral cabinet recall this history, and reflect the world that emerged from it. His slag stone collection reads like a geological record, attesting to the economic and social processes that shaped the contemporary landscape that we inherited today. But it also raises questions: what kind of future ecosystems can our human-made soil sustain?
Legacy from the steel industry
Licari explores industrial and natural heritage, and often develops his projects through research on location. Schlak was made during a residency in Belval, a former mining area in Luxembourg. But the steel industry, a key factor in the growth of the global economy, has left its traces everywhere. Controversial steel slags were also used in the Netherlands, including in the construction of dikes. We are so accustomed to landscapes of industrial waste that we hardly notice them.
Thanks to Public Art Experience – BeHave by Le Fonds Belval, Belval, Luxemburg.