LIMES

Humans have always settled in places where resources have been easily accessible. Local cultures and their artefacts reflect site-specific mineral resources and technical skills of the local inhabitants. 

In the area of “Teutschenthal”, various archaeological finds document the early settlement of the region and give us an insight into how people created things with the local material, clay, as far back as 4900 BC. The community “Teutschenthal Bahnhof“ in a way developed very similarly to these early cultures, as it was based on the accessibility of local mineral resources.

In 1907 potash salt, wich was used to produce fertiliser, began to be mined from deep within the ground. Until the mine was closed down in 1982, the impact of mining on the environment  intensified. Due to the increasing demand for the local resources, the population of the village increased as well. Two dumps of waste salt in the community are still representative for Teutschenthal’s mining past and will remain there as so-called “end loads” – for an indefinite period of time.

„Limes“ takes a look into the future and asks what the use of regional raw materials might look like in a post-industrialised society. For this purpose, dump salt is used, which consists mostly of sodium chloride. In combination with the sodium-water-glass, which can be extracted from the dump material, a composite which is formable and stable can be produced. 

The early ceramics of the community in Teutschenthal serve as a research object for exploring material-specific qualities as well as aesthetic qualities of the “dump composite”.

By defining the formal specifications in this way, the shaping methods can be explored specifically for processing the salt.

“Limes” are replicas of ceramics from early settlers in Teutschenthal, and are processed from the dump material. The three artefacts emphasize the dump material’s potential as a resource while representing the history of the area.

We need to question the exhaustive use of mineral resources in our society and look for new definitions  for the “waste” and ‚“resource”. Places like “Teutschenthal Bahnhof” exist all over Germany. Mineral resources are mined and brought to the surface without much notice from outside. As of today, recycling dump salt is not profitable, but we have to learn to understand resources in a different way and take responsibility for the way we deal with them non the less.