laumes (Goda Budvytyte & Viktorija Rybakova)

The Sun that lives inside the rock ∞

since 2018

(Treppen)

The Sun that lives inside the rock
The hand, the rock, the fire
where the two touch

The shape was born from clay and hardened back
into the rock

The flower open as a gaping heart
Embraces a tree, becoming tree-like

The spell was brought back into the Earth

At the beginning of 2018, the interdisciplinary research, production, and design studio laumes (Goda Budvytyte and Viktorija Rybakova) surreptitiously embedded themselves into Kunstverein München’s history. By repairing fractures in our distinctive granite stairs with synthetic polychromatic polymers, the pair added a new layer to the material makeup of the institution, and called attention not only to the stratified layers below our feet, but also to the ways materials carry memories and shape our present. Indeed, laumes’ The sun that lives inside the rock operates at a scale of deep time, encompassing the entirety of the geological timeline from the beginning of the earth to far beyond human existence. Their ongoing project concerns the long history and evolution of material plasticity, from metamorphic rocks, clay, and amber, to natural rubber, synthetic plastics, and new polymers, all of which are currently combining to form a new geological layer made up of plastiglomerates. As such, these formations erode any distinction between natural and artificial, and thereby highlight the shaping, moulding, combination, and transformation of materials across time by both human and non-human actions. By probing the parentages and progenies of plastics, the project points to the history of materials as containers of memory and as reliable indicators for the aesthetics, economy, ecology and cultural history of any particular place. As laumes states: ‘Plastic and rock – in conversation with one another – are shocked by the comfort of each other’s presence and the familiarity of the fiery affair that brought them into this world.’

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