Forthcoming this spring! »Klose/Steininger: Atlas of Petromodernity. Santa Barbara: punctumbooks 2024«

English translation of our Atlas by Ayça Türkoğlu, updated and enlarged edition with a new introduction by Stephanie LeMenager and a new concluding chapter, »Zombie«, on the still not closed case of petromodern destruction. In print and open access!

“The Atlas of Petromodernity offers us the chance to be a flaneur within its distinctively curated and therefore somewhat realistic world. Enter at your own risk, with the affinity for risk that may well define you, even still.” Stephanie LeMenager

For more details on publication, dates, and availability see here: punctumbooks.com

Alexander Klose / Benjamin Steininger »Petromoderne Permanenz und Wiederkehr«, Gespräch mit Birgit Schneider, im Rahmen der Veranstaltung »Abschied von den Fossilkulturen«, Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, Berlin, 17.1.2024, 17:30

Kalte Asche und Petromelancholie. Energie ist nicht nur, was aus Leitungen kommt. Energieformen prägen Kulturformen – in ihrer materiellen Gestalt wie in ihren Denkmöglichkeiten. Darüber hinaus ist »energeia« seit Aristoteles eine Wirkkraft, die ein Potenzielles ins Sein bringt, etwas vor Augen führen kann – und damit eine genuin poetologische Kategorie. Was bedeutet es für die Literatur als energetische Kunst, dass sich ein Abschied von den Fossilkulturen abzeichnet?

Zu diesen Fragen fanden am 17.1.2024 zwei Diskussionsrunden im Brecht-Haus Berlin statt, eingeleitet von Steffen Richter. (mehr Infos)

17:30, Alexander Klose / Benjamin Steininger, »Petromoderne Permanenz und Wiederkehr«, Impulsvortrag und Gespräch mit Birgit Schneider.

20:00, »Energiekämpfe in der Gegenwart«. Mit Burkhard Spinnen (»Rückwind«, 2019), Susanne Stephan (»Der Held und seine Heizung. Brennstoffe der Literatur«, 2023) und Theresa Hannig (»Pantopia«, 2022). Moderation Matthias Bertsch.

Video der gesamten Veranstaltung:

Ein dichter und inspirierender Einführungstext zur Veranstaltung von Steffen Richter, der am 16.01.2024 im tagesspiegel erschienen ist, kann hier abgerufen werden.

»Ukraine | Auf den Grenzen der Petromoderne«, ein Beitrag von Alexander Klose und Benjamin Steininger in der Zeitschrift »Dritte Natur. Technik Kapital Umwelt« Matthes&Seitz Berlin 2023, S.7-40.

Seit dem russischen Krieg in der Ukraine ist sie Thema politischer, ökonomischer und kultureller Debatten: Energie. Sabotierte Pipelines, gebrochene Staudämme und beschossene Atomkraftwerke machen die Verletzlichkeit unserer Energieinfrastrukturen greifbar – und die unserer gesamten energieintensiven Lebensform. Das fossile Zeitalter hat Karbon- und Petromoderne ermöglicht und weitreichende Freiheitsroutinen etabliert. Zugleich aber untergräbt es unsere Lebensgrundlagen. Damit überlagern sich die vom Krieg angefachten Diskussionen über Versorgungssicherheit mit Debatten, die seit langem über die Notwendigkeit einer postfossilen Kultur geführt werden. Energieformen nämlich prägen Kulturformen. Und Geschichte lässt sich immer schon als Geschichte von Energiewenden und Konflikten zwischen Energieregimen lesen. Diese Ausgabe der Zeitschrift »Dritte Natur. Technik – Kapital – Umwelt« widmet sich in ihrem Schwerpunkt verschiedenen Facetten von Energiekulturen – etwa dem Energiemanagement der Finanzmärkte, autofreien Sonntagen in der alten Bundesrepublik oder Windradromanen der Gegenwartsliteratur.

[https://www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de/buch/dritte-natur-06-1.2023.html]

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.

Petromelancholia – essay version

Exhibition at Brutus, in the port of Rotterdam, NL, Sept 1 to Nov 19

In bed with petroleum. 
In the air.
On the road. On the plate. 
All over and inside bodies. 
It’s a love affair that modern industrial civilization has been having with oil (and gas), its fuels and the materials created from it. More than that: it’s a love of life, profoundly influencing how people live, move, eat, dress, love, experience, aspire, and believe. A love, though, that has increasingly expressed destructive aspects, excess, exhaustion, abuse, addiction, and contamination.

“We all have to die some day. Shell helps.” Sticker on street sign in The Hague, spring 2022 ©Alex Close

“Petromelancholia” is the condition that the US energy humanities scholar Stephanie LeMenager diagnosed as being at the core of her home country’s cultural and political struggle to hang on to “oil culture“. The more people realize that the age of oil is eventually going to end—and has to in regard to the state of the planet—the harder they cling on to it. Following this diagnosis, the world has lately been swept by waves of petromelancholia. Acknowledging the long-lasting success of these dynamics of denial, which started 50 years ago, a mere “energy transition” might turn out to be not enough to get over modernity’s true love. 

Wouldn’t we also need acceptance and grief, reconciliation and reparations—processes that eventually lead to profound cultural, political and economic transitions?

Elevated view of the Brutus/Atelier van Lieshout compound, taken from the residency flat in spring 2022. The large blue building in the background right, a former granary, referred to as ‘Kathedraal’, is the entrance of the exhibition. ©Alex Close

Upon opening of our OIL-exhibition in Wolfsburg two years ago, Joep van Lieshout, one of the participating artists, asked if we wanted to curate a  follow-up show at his newly founded „artist-driven space“ Brutus in the port of Rotterdam.

Rotterdam! One of the oil capitals of Europe, largest port, largest refinery, largest petroleum storage and processing capacities. Largely and radically rebuilt after WW2 in all kinds of modernist style — a through and through petromodern city.

And since our 2017 visit to a Delft ‘Petroleumscapes’ conference, the region had played a role in our own petroleumscapes research, resulting in ‘Greenhause’, a chapter of our Atlas and in some smaller essays and publications).

Though a comparably low-budget project, the possibility to bring our curatorial research there was tempting.

After one and a half years of preparation, with a short residency and a petrosalon at Goethe Institut Rotterdam in april last year as startig points and deciding additional help and motivation, the exhibition opened on Friday, Sept 1st! Other than our Wolfsburg exhibition, which claimed to show the first retrospective of 100 years of petromodern art, „Petromelancholia“ is largely dedicated to our contemporary petromodern states of heart and mind. 

The exhibition consists of four chapters:
1 In Bed with Oil
2 Oil Encounters
3 Toxic Legacy and the Museum of Petromodern Futures
4 Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet.

The opening paragraphs of this entry are from the wall-text of the first chapter. All four wall-texts can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Click here to see a photo documentation of all the works in the exhibition.

The exhibition is spread over the complete Brutus-compound and consists of four chapters. Here’s a floorplan (click on image to enlarge or download as pdf).

Review of our »Atlas of Petromodernity« at the prominent history of science journal »ISIS« by Jens Soentgen

» […] The boldness of the authors is to be applauded, for petroleum is not only a basic supplier of energy but also a basic material of the modern world. Almost everything in our modern world is linked to petroleum. Coping with this omnipresence is possible only by limiting oneself spatially, temporally, and methodologically. Various studies on petroleum that have appeared recently have taken this approach, such as the justly well-regarded work of Stephanie LeMenager. Klose and Steininger choose a different option. Their book consists of shorter articles, each picking out individual aspects. This creates a kaleidoscope of impressions: a master story is not told—and shall not be told.

The very well written book takes on the form of the ironic encyclopedia that has been popular since the nineteenth century, as a parody of the great encyclopedias of the Enlightenment era. Impressive color illustrations complement the text and, according to the authors, justify the “Atlas” of the subtitle (p. 15). In their individual glosses, the authors almost always succeed in offering interesting and often novel discoveries. For example, the topic of drilling is presented in a well-founded and stimulating manner in a brief account. The catalytically controlled chemical transformation of petroleum constituents is also solidly presented under the heading “Molecular Mobilization” (pp. 49–57). Often, the reader’s expectations are deliberately played with—as, for example, when the essay entitled “Animals in the Oil Field” (pp. 199–203) deals not with seabirds that are glued together and dying but, rather, with animals that visit drilling grounds. This approach arouses interest and curiosity but also increases perplexity. The reader is left alone with the material and must tell his own story.

And this is precisely the goal; it also fits the form of the ironic encyclopedia, which from the outset does not lead one to expect that an overview will be presented. The history of oil is a history that crashes over us. “Erdöl: Ein Atlas der Petromoderne” aims to use brief spotlights, from very different perspectives, to draw attention to a substance that is part of the everyday life of modernity. It succeeds in doing so; at the same time, the well documented individual articles offer suggestions for further study and some connections that may be new even to researchers who have been in the field for some time. An English edition is in preparation.«

Exhibition just opened! »Petromelancholia« at BRUTUS, Rotterdam, 2.9.2023 – 19.11.2023

»Petromelancholia« examines the enormous consequences of a life beyond oil, the magnitude of which many do not yet realize. Unlike the many exhibitions that sing about doom scenarios or kick in the open doors of the climate crisis, Petromelancholia reflects on the legacy of the oil age and the new meaning that this past will irrevocably acquire. What has oil brought us, materially and especially culturally, and what might disappear or change?

listen into: »Abschied vom Ölzeitalter: „Petromelancholia“ in neuem Kunstraum in Rotterdam«, Kerstin Schweighöfer on DEUTSCHLANDFUNK on the Exhibition (in GERMAN)

several newspapers brought reviews, find some of them here (all in dutch):
–> Trouw, Sept 8 2023
–> Telegraaf, Sept 12 2023
–> NRC, Sept 13 2023
–> De Volkskrant, Sept 15 2023

Download exhibition flyer as pdf.

A large croud is present at Alexander Klose’s opening speech at BRUTUS Rotterdam!

It’s hard to think of a better location for Petromelancholia than at BRUTUS – situated in the Rotterdam harbor. In few places will the impact of the energy transition be more visible than here. This is therefore the most appropriate place for critical self-reflection with a good dose of melancholy and nostalgia. The exhibition reflects an urgency that has never before been felt this strong.

With works by: Yuri Ancarani (ITA), Rowan van As (NLD), Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck (VEN/GER), Diann Bauer (USA), Uwe Belz (GER), Vanessa Billy (CHE), Kevin van Braak & Ipeh Nur (NLD/IDN), Imani Jacqueline Brown (USA), Andrew Castrucci (USA), Chto Delat (RUS), Timo Demollin (NLD), Tanja Engelberts (NLD), Christoph Girardet (GER), Rumiko Hagiwara (JPN/NLD), heidundgriess (GER), Bernhard Hopfengärtner (GER), Aaditi Joshi (IND), Olaf Mooij (NLD), Leonhard Müllner & Robin Klengel (AUT), Hugo Niebeling (GER), Alain Resnais (FRA), Konstantin Schimanowski (RUS/GER), Miriam Sentler (NLD), Sanaz Sohrabi (IRN/CAN), Johannes Steendam (NLD), Gunhild Vatn (NOR), Jan Eric Visser (NLD), Rachel Youn (USA), Marina Zurkow (USA).

Visit Petromelancholia from 2nd of Sep until 19th of Nov.

During the official opening on Friday September 1st from 8 pm live performances Kems Kriol and DJ Sjoerd Oberman in collaboration with MOMO Fabrique Festival.

From Oct 25 to 29 several special events related to Petromelancholia at Goethe Institut Rotterdam and at Brutus. Program will be published here.

all pictures here: ©Benjamin Steininger
Billboard in downtown Rotterdam. Video by Gunhild Vatn

Mein Schatz / My precious

Exhibition on post-mining landscapes and mentalities, on mining that takes place elsewhere, and on the relation between precious metals and digital culture.

Co-curated by Beauty of Oil’s Alexander Klose together with Daniel Herrmann, artistic director of Werkleitz.

From June 2nd to 18th on the compound of Wiederstedt Castle, where the early romantic poet Novalis spent his childhood, in Mansfeld county, a former mining region 40 km west of Halle (Saale).

Egill Sæbjörnsson, Troll Coins, 2023. Installation video @Alexclose

Nature does not want to be the exclusive possession of a single individual.
(Novalis, Heinrich von Ofterdingen)

What is My Precious today? And what does that still have to do with exquisite materials from underground? An exhibition project about local and global mining, its consequences as well as its people and natural conditions.

Mansfeld region 2023. The mining district in the triangle between Eisleben, Sandersleben was up until recently a place of hard work down in the mines and in the foundries. Now the region is seeking new added values and virtues. It is said that mining shapes people in a special way. Today, 30 years after the abrupt end, what about the afterlife and survival of the old values? What new values have been created?

Werkleitz has invited ten internationally working artists for the 2023 My Precious festival. With eight new works created specifically for the festival and two works adapted to the local conditions, they respond to the complex mélange of questions that arise when looking at the Mansfeld region today. A film room curated by Florian Wüst in the Inspektorhaus, as well as a dense program of artist talks, guided thematic walks, workshops for children, concerts, readings, and much more complete the festival offerings. Lena Reisner, whose exhibition Fossil experience could be seen in Berlin in 2022, was invited as a free curatorial researcher and came back with stories about women in the mines from Saint Barbara to actual workers.

Spray painted wooden Figurine of Saint Barbara at cellar entrance ©Falk Wenzel

The participating artists were, in alphabetical order: Ana Alenso, Mabe Bethônico, Karsten Bott, Viktor Brim, Felicitas Fäßler, Juliane Henrich, Stephanie Kiwitt, Barbara Marcel, Agnieszka Polska, and Egill Sæbjörnsson.

Here are installation views of the works, all photos © Falk Wenzel.

Mabe Bethonico, The Collective Dig. A Papertheatre on the Myths of Extraction, 2023
Barbara Marcel, Golden Tone, 2018-21
Felicitas Fässler, Outcrop, 2023
Karsten Bott, One Of Each – Kahlenberg/Bott, 2023
Agnieska Polska, The Demon’s Brain, 2018
Juliane Henrich, Dendrites, 2023
Stephanie Kiwitt, S. Anders leben, 2023
“Mein Schatz Kiste”/mediation station about women in the mines, realized in cooperation with Lena Reisner
Victor Brim, the cavity inside, 2023

A thorough description of all the artistic works and the complete program can be found at: https://mein-schatz.werkleitz.de/en/mein-schatz/ausstellung

Here’s a selection of reviews in print, radio and television (all in German, though):

Monopol Magazin, „Tipps und Termine, Wohin am Wochenende?“ (2.6.23)

MDR Kultur Online, „Ausstellung, Filme und mehr: Werkleitz Festival befasst sich künstlerisch mit Bergbau-Folgen“ (1.6.23)

Radiofeature Deutschlandfunk Kultur „Fazit“, “Werkleitz Festival im Mansfelder Land: Auf der Suche nach ‘Mein Schatz’” von Niklas Ottersbach (4.6.23, 23:00) 

Radiofeature MDR Kultur, Das Radio, „Mein Schatz – Was das Werkleitz Festival in Wiederstedt 2023 zu bieten hat“ von Anne Sailer (2.6.23, 6:00) 

Short feature on the festival on MDR Artour, (8.6.2023). Here is the link to the ARD-Mediathek. 

Conversation with Alexander Klose at “Radiozwitschern. Uniradio Halle” (9.6.23, 14:00) on free radio Corax, Halle.

»BEAUTY OF OIL«, 25.2.2023, 20:40, Ein Gespräch mit Benjamin Steininger am Volkstheater Wien

Das Gespräch von Dramaturg Matthias Seier mit Benjamin Steininger über Ästhetik und Politik der Petromoderne war Teil von: TIEFENBOHRUNG. Ein Wochenende über Triumph und Tragödie des Ölzeitalters.

Das Schwerpunktwochenende zum Erdöl als einer Substanz, die wie keine andere die Wirklichkeiten dieses Planeten durchdringt und beeinflusst, begleitet die Produktionen BLACK FLAME und ÖL! Es fand statt vom 23. bis 26. Februar 2023 am Volkstheater Wien.