EXHIBITION BY KATRIN HORNEK
In collaboration with Katrin Power (choreography), Sabina Holzer (text) and Zosia Hołubowska (sound), Secession Vienna, 2024.

testing grounds is a new, immersive live installation conceived by Katrin Hornek and developed in a collaborative process involving artists as well as researchers and scientists from different fields. The collaboration with Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer, and Zosia Hołubowska lays a foundation for the work, which addresses a sensitive urgent matter: At stake is the measurable evidence of radioactive radiation around the world as a result of the testing and use of nuclear weapons in hundreds of above-ground tests since 1945. A local soil sample at Karlsplatz, in which minimal amounts of plutonium could be detected, as its starting point, testing grounds follows the permanent imprints left by nuclear fallout in our bodies, in plants and earth archives.

Embedded in an installation that evokes images of decaying landscapes, twice a week three dancers perform a score choreographed by Pauer. A recent scan of the “Baker” crater on the seabed of the former US nuclear bomb test site in Bikini Atoll spreads across the ceiling. On handheld devices shaped like turtles and tortoises, so-called „messengers“, texts created by Sabina Holzer and Katrin Hornek provide multi-layered narratives on the subject matter, which enter a subtle, intimate dialogue with specially composed soundscapes by Zosia Hołubowska, while with their movements, the dancers delve into the depths of body archives. Together, the elements of the live installation create a sensual, immersive experience, a test set-up of the embodiment of the unspeakable.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with an image spread compiled by Katrin Hornek and text contributions by Anne Faucheret and Brian Holmes.
This publication is available for free download here:
testing grounds – Download

The publication accompanying the exhibition testing grounds reflects Katrin Hornek’s artistic approach, which is based on interdisciplinary research and collaboration. This new, immersive installation deals with the measurable global evidence of radioactive radiation as a result of hundreds of above-ground nuclear weapons tests since 1945. Screenshots of chat histories and voice messages, which depict the diverse research and were written together with Sabina Holzer are dispersed throughout the book, together with photographs of the performance choreographed by Karin Pauer. The essays by the American cultural critic and activist Brian and the curator Anne Faucheret offer in-depth insights and exciting, wide-ranging references to this highly topical project. Excerpts of the soundscape composed by Zosia Hołubowska as an integral part of the installation can be accessed and listened to via a QR code.

Watch: Katrin Hornek, Karin Pauer, Sabina Holzer and Zosia Hołubowska in conversation with Katrin Klingan (in German).