A Crack in Deep Time
“From the perspective of deep time – geological time – Chemnitz was once located on the equator” the architects note and continue „Some 291 million years ago, in the Early Permian Period, an eruption of the Zeisigwald volcano flattened the surrounding forest. The remains of the petrified trees scattered across the region form a local treasure. It tells us that tree ferns, seed ferns, conifers such as the extinct Cordaitales trees, and various species of Calamites – the extinct giant relatives of horsetails – once thrived in the subtropical forest on which Chemnitz now stands. This vast collection of the fossilized remains, held at the Natural History Museum, is both an archive of the planet’s past and an encounter with its possible future.“ OOZE and Potrč have embedded parts of the petrified forest in a landscape of plants known as “living fossils”: Descendants of the forest from millions of years ago that were able to adapt to new living conditions and are still thriving today. Urban transformation is evident at this currently unused site. Where there used to be a car park, archaeological excavations took place and new (residential) houses will soon be built, a kind of crack or gap is opening up. While the time frame in which the drastic effects of climate change can be halted threatens to pass, OOZE and Potrč create a moment of silence in which we can ask ourselves what we can learn from change and how we can deal with it.
Realisation in cooperation with the Chemnitz Natural History Museum (Ilja Kogan, Ronny Rößler) and HANSA Real Estate Beteiligungs AG.
The construction site is visible at all times from above, but can only be entered when accompanied by our art mediators.