Petromelancholia – documentation

Walkthrough with curatorial advice from the future

Video: Alessia Taló. Sound: Bernd Hopfengärtner. Text: Alex Close&Bernd Hopfengärtner. Montage: Alex Close.

All the artworks in the show – Chapter 1: In bed with petroleum (slides)

Christoph Girardet – Fountain, 2021 – Video 21:30 min. Sound: Chris Jones

Marina Zurkow – Petroleum Manga, 2014/2023 – detail

Marina Zurkow – Petroleum Manga, 2014/2023

Timo Demollin – Stb.1966,271-16625-20649, 2023

Vanessa Billy- Empty the Earth to fill the Sky, 2013

Aaditi Joshi, Suffocation, 2008 – Video 49 sec

Olaf Mooij – Fontein der tranen, 2022

Rachel Youn – Revival, 2020/2022

Rachel Youn – Revival, 2020/2022 – detail

PetroPropagandaStation, f.l.t.r.: Beauty of Oil, Youtube Videoclip Montage, 2023, 9:40 min; Uwe Belz, Elaste aus Schkopau, 1968, 10:25 min; Hugo Niebeling, Petrol Kraftstoff Carburant, 1964, 14 min

All photos by Aad Hoogendorn, if not mentioned otherwise

All the artworks in the show – Chapter 2: Oil Encounters (15 slides)

Tanja Engelberts – Decom, 2021 – Video 15 min

Tanja Engelberts – Cities of desire, 2016

Alain Resnais – Le Chant du Styrène, 1958 – Video 13 min

Sanaz Sohrabi – Specters of the Subterranean (part 1): Rhymes and Songs for the Oil Minister, 2021 – ongoing

Sanaz Sohrabi – Specters of the Subterranean (part 1): Rhymes and Songs for the Oil Minister, 2021 – detail

Gunhild Vatn – Ocean Viking, 2018 + In Remembrance, 2018

Gunhild Vatn – Ocean Viking, 2018 – detail

Rumiko Hagiwara – Shell’s Metamorphosis, 2023 + I Want to Be a Shell, 2019/2023 – Video 25 min

Rumiko Hagiwara – Shell’s Metamorphosis, 2023 – detail

Imani Jacqueline Brown – What remains at the ends of the earth? – 2022

Imani Jacqueline Brown – What remains at the ends of the earth? – textboard

Bernhard Hopfengärtner – Oil tracks. Audio interventions from the future, 2021/2023 – 7 audio files in 4 audiostations, Station 3

Kevin van Braak & Ipeh Nur – Silence would be treason, 2023 (commissioned by Brutus for Petromelancholia)

Kevin van Braak & Ipeh Nur – Silence would be treason, 2023

Kevin van Braak & Ipeh Nur – Silence would be treason, 2023

All photos by Aad Hoogendorn

All the artworks in the show – Chapter 3: Toxic Legacies and the Museum of Petromodern Futures (15 slides)

Rowan van As – TAXI, 2019 – ongoing

Leonhard Müllner & Robin Klengel – Operation Jane Walk, 2018 – Online Performance Video: 16:14 min

Konstantin Schimanowski – A Drop of Sunlight Shadow – hanging sculpture + audio 11:40 min

Johannes Steendam – Big Oilfield, 2023

Johannes Steendam – Oilfield, 2023 (photo by Alex Close)

Miriam Sentler – Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne: Oil & Myth, 2022 + Mining Myths, 2023

Miriam Sentler – Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne: Oil & Myth, 2022, 2023

Miriam Sentler – Mining Myths, 2023

Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck – Last oil barrel, date postponed

Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck – Last oil barrel – detail

Diann Bauer – Prologue: Politics as Palliative Care of the Species, 2019 – Video 11:20 min. + XFAST, 2019 – Introductory video for ‘If Nature is Unjust, Change Nature’ talk, 5:20 min

Jan Eric Visser – Untitled, 2023, #1+2

Jan Eric Visser – Untitled, 2023, #3

Jan Eric Visser – Untitled, 2023, #4

Yuri Ancarani – The Challenge, 2016 – Video 70 min

All photos by Aad Hoogendorn, if not mentioned otherwise

All the artworks in the show – Chapter 4: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet (8 slides)

Andrew Castrucci – Fracktured lives, 2021

Andrew Castrucci – Fracktured lives, 2021 – artist book

Booktable (photo by Alessia Taló)

Chto Delat collective – School of Emergencies, 2023: Lecture performance by Oxana Timofeeva – Video 44 min + Between Shadow and Light, 2023 – Video 70 min + Inside the Diagram – Video 11 min

Chto Delat collective – School of Emergencies, 2023 – detail

Chto Delat collective – School of Emergencies, 2023 – detail

Kevin van Braak & Ipeh Nur – Silence would be treason, 2023

Kevin van Braak & Ipeh Nur – Silence would be treason, 2023 – detail

All photos by Aad Hoogendorn, if not mentioned otherwise.

Exhibition spaces and scenography (slide show).

Atelier van Lieshout Sculpture Garden Entrance. Photo: Alex Close

Rowan van As’ Taxi on the sidewalk in front of Brutus. Photo: Alex Close

Brutus street entrance, Keileweg 18. Photo: Alex Close

Entrance to Petromelancholia through AVL sculpture garden.
Photo: Alex Close

Opening speeches in AVL sculpture garden. Photo: Caro Linares

Entrance Petromelancholia on opening night. Photo Caro Linares

Exhibition space “Kathedraal” during build-up. Photo: Alex Close

Installing Marina Zurkow’s Petroleum Manga in “Kathedraal”.
Photo: Alex Close

Entrance situation “Kathedraal”. Photo: Aad Hoogendorn

Back wall “Kathedraal”. Photo: Aad Hoogendorn

Situation in “Hal 1” during opening. Photo: Caro Linares

Situation in exhibition space “Barbaar”. Photo: Aad Hoogendorn

Sneak preview at Gunhild Vatn’s installation in “Barbaar”. Photo: Alex Close

Situation in “Barbaar” during build-up. Photo: Alex Close

Visitors in exhibition space “Laadruimte” during opening.
Photo: Benjamin Steininger

View from “Laadruimte” to walltext 3 at the entrance to exhibition spaces “Ruin” and “Barbarella”. Photo: Aad Hoogendorn

Miriam Sentler explaining her works in one of the rooms in exhibition space “Ruin”. Photo: Alex Close

Hallway with scenographic orange wrapping film during opening night.
Photo: Caro Linares

Rooms in exhibition space “Ruin” during opening night. Photo: Caro Linares

Walltext 4. Photo: Alex Close

Exhibition space “Bureel” during Opening night. Photo: Caro Linares

A description of all the artworks in the show can be found on the brutus website archive.

In bed with petroleum; Oil Encounters; Toxic Legacies and the Museum of Petromodern Futures; Arts of Living on a Damaged Planetwalltexts of all four chapters for download as pdf.