Ge(ssenwiese), K(anigsberg) Library for Radioactive Afterlife

Gessenwiese and Kanigsberg form part of a landscape that has been in a process of constant change since 1946. The overburden from the mining industry created radioactive spoil heaps and lakes that are being rehabilitated by various means: plants growing on Gessenwiese accumulate contaminants from the soil. Textiles are used to slowly dry out the lakes and bind the radioactive dust. The banked mounds are returned to the earth bit by bit. These continual changes to the volumes in the landscape and their afterlife are the conceptual starting point for G(essenwiese) K(anigsberg). In recent years, Susanne Kriemann has developed a radically expanded idea of photography that investigates new systems for registering events and geological periods.

Susanne Kriemann (b. 1972) lives and works in Berlin and Karlsruhe. Since 2017 she has been professor of artistic photography at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. The artist’s book P(ech) B(lende) was published by Spector Books in 2016.