VANADIUM BLOOM
MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION
IDEA and CURATED BY POSTHUMAN STUDIES LAB (EKATERINA NIKITINA, NIKITA SAZONOV, IPPOLIT MARKELOV, MARIA MOLOKOVA)
PHOTO BY MARK SERYY
SREDA GALLERY, MOSCOW
2022
Collaborative project curated by Posthuman Studies Lab.
The “Vanadium Bloom” exhibition is a continuation of the “Unstable Connections” summer laboratory, which talks about the connection between computational and vegetative systems.
Some plants growing on polluted soil accumulate metals in concentrations exceeding those occurring naturally by hundreds or even thousands of times. This characteristic is used for the purification of polluted areas. Today, experimental phytomining farms are introduced, where certain metals are harvested for reuse.
In collaboration with researchers at the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, the artists conduct the experiment in vanadium mining. Experimental species of red fescue, oat, and white clover are placed in the gallery space. These plants could be used for the revegetation of polluted soil.
In the gallery space, red fescue, oat, and white clover grow in soils containing different concentrations of a vanadium compound — ammonium metavanadate (NH₄VO₃). At the end of the exhibition, the plants will be harvested, dried, and ashed, while the collected compounds will be used for the creation of a vanadium electrolyte with its later use in a flow battery.
The exhibition includes the work of artists, biologists, ecologists, philosophers, and scientists.
Some plants growing on polluted soil accumulate metals in concentrations exceeding those occurring naturally by hundreds or even thousands of times. This characteristic is used for the purification of polluted areas. Today, experimental phytomining farms are introduced, where certain metals are harvested for reuse.
In collaboration with researchers at the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, the artists conduct the experiment in vanadium mining. Experimental species of red fescue, oat, and white clover are placed in the gallery space. These plants could be used for the revegetation of polluted soil.
In the gallery space, red fescue, oat, and white clover grow in soils containing different concentrations of a vanadium compound — ammonium metavanadate (NH₄VO₃). At the end of the exhibition, the plants will be harvested, dried, and ashed, while the collected compounds will be used for the creation of a vanadium electrolyte with its later use in a flow battery.
The exhibition includes the work of artists, biologists, ecologists, philosophers, and scientists.
Participants: Ekaterina Nikitina, Nikita Sazonov, Ippolit Markelov, Maria Molokova, Natalia Alatorzeva, Masha Alexandrova, Evgenia Bezginova, Alina Brovina, Irina Gulyakina, Anton Kraftsky, Natalia Kuzmina, Altyn Mustafina, Timofey Nosov, Mikhail Petrov, Ksenia Ruban, Roman Solodkov, Daria Trubarova
