Leevi Toija, Cristian Zabalaga: "On Topographic Transformations in Biomass Time" (2023)

COVER

With this research we wanted to delve deep into the impacts of green(er) (i.e. electric car manufacturing) ways of travel into the quality of the necessary-for-life groundwater. Finland’s most dominant (and major) valuable natural resource is (clean) groundwater. Yet it is also the only country in Europe in possession of all the needed minerals to produce (car) batteries. However, the needed amount to mine these minerals to match EU’s objective on electric cars – require a 30 time increase in production. Even now, without the 30 time increase, a company called Terrafame spilled thousands of liters of toxic water into nature in the biggest cobalt mine in Finland, causing a major natural catastrophe within the local lakes and forests—simultaneously polluting the area’s groundwater. Even though the thematic framework of mobility infrastructure is something familiar – already researched – to us, the impact it has on groundwaters is completely unknown to us. Through upcoming discussions with different specialists from the field of environmental science – we hope to discover new linkages between our already existing knowledge of mobility and sustainable greener future. So – in short – we believe that through listening, and discussing with people we can learn, and discover most efficiently.

Even though the thematic framework of mobility infrastructure is something familiar to us —already researched—the impact it has on groundwaters is completely unknown to us. Through discussions with different specialists from the field of environmental science, as well as locals affected by polluted water—we hope to discover new linkages between our already existing knowledge of mobility and sustainable future. So—in short—we believe that through listening and discussing with people we can learn, and discover most efficiently. However we do not have a specific research goal in mind. We do not plan to answer precisely set questions, but rather speculate a constellation of latent potentials the questions asked might possess. Not only do we want to find the most sustainable way to travel, but also speculate and communicate to a broader audience, what are the debated parameters of sustainability in mobility. We wish to deconstruct the dominance of ignorance in the field of moving through the project.

During our three-week research trip to Finland and its mines, soon to be mines, battery factories, and soon to be battery factories—visiting and camping around 20 lakes, both polluted and well preserved—we started to develop a cohesive idea for a collaborative duo-exhibition based on the thematics and findings of our research 

Throughout this trip, we got to talk both with locals who have been or are being affected by polluted waters, as well as specialists and activists from the field. Both sides were kind enough to share their thoughts about the prevailing problems of the battery industry in Finland. Most importantly we got a lot of first hand experience, walking around these given sites and most importantly to gather material which is only accessible to one if one visits these sites.

Even though the idea consists of two different artistic practices and outcomes, both of the projects require each other in order to function—to be each other's infrastructures, at the end both being about: (ground)water—perhaps the largest (infra)structure binding us all together.

The outcome of the trip will consist of a video work (Leevi Toija) and sculptures (Cristian Zabalaga)—both concentrating on the overall thematics of the whole research topic. The trip itself will be brought together by a collaborative publication made solely from the research material gathered during our time in Finland. For the publication we have invited a Finnish art critic and a friend, Eero Karjalainen to be part of the editing process and to also contribute an essay for the publication. At the end, the publication will consist of 1) a research essay by Eero Karjalainen exploring the relationship between groundwater and spatialization of research, 2) a commissioned essay by critic Tuija Huovinen on the theme(s) of water, and 3) visual field research material by Toija and Zabalaga.

Throughout the trip Toija gathered imagery from every lake we visited. Shooting the images exactly 1m below the surface of the water the images (formally) portray nothing but abstract colors (06_LeeviToija_CristianZabalaga, 07_LeeviToija_CristianZabalaga). From this footage Toija is proposing a 2-channel video installation. This work in progress aims to decipher the interrelationship of polluted and clean water by underwater imagery. The contradiction of what is present, but absent and what is represented and there, functions as the core conceptual idea of the video: battery mining releases unwanted metals/minerals to different bodies of water, which then sometimes “cleans” the water of life—i.e. the water appears unsoiled, more see-through and picturesque, yet remaining toxic and unhealthy—and vice versa. Sometimes a body of water, clearly dirty to the human eye, is nevertheless clean. This shift is undetectable to the human eye—a truth that can only be worked out in (the invisible) data. The imagery immerses the viewer to colors—blurring the line between what is there and what is not. The abstract images of water—be it polluted or clean are then narrated by fragmented, cliché lyrics of Finnish songs mentioning water and its relation to people in its different forms—then translated into English in order to universalize the topic to a wider audience and spread the work outside of the sociopolitical context of Finland.

During the site visits Zabalaga concentrated on the material embodiment of the places we visited. From these objects Zabalaga’s sculptures draw their ideas from the undetachable relation between water and light. The motif of the sculptures comes from a found buoy: a buoy is a fabricated object which can have various uses stretching from lifesavers to temporary markers. They belong to watery landscapes; be it an inhabited harbor or a dried up lake where the buoys cast a certain reminiscent of a life long lost. In the context of this project proposal their function shifts as they would be hung from the ceiling exactly 1m above Toija’s video installation’s top (the depth the videos were shot), one on both sides of the screen and equipped with a battery-powered light. The sculptures simultaneously use some of their initial functions, nonetheless becoming a literal part of the exhibition space’s infrastructure as they are the only source of light in the space. Hence they blurr, and navigate the fine line (in-)between a design object, utilitarian tool and a sculpture. The buoy is not there for the viewer to attach oneself to it, but as means to (en)lighten the seat one can take and immerse oneself to the research.

This project and the installation proposed aims to produce a vague feeling of being underwater, however leaving a certain ambivalence open due to the abstract imagery. The room should perhaps remind the viewer of a (dis)comfortable, neo-liberal tech-company’s front-desk—rather than solely producing anxious and claustrophobic feelings—something imaginable during the ridiculous—globally broadcasted incident of the Titan -submarine imploding.