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 Ge(ssenwiese) K(anigsberg). Taking into consideration the ecology of books, the eleven variable linen covers and the papers used in this publication were taken from bookbinder’s and printer’s leftovers. Inserted leaves collected and pressed by Susanne Kriemann from Gessenwiese and Kanigsberg.
The first part of the Library for Radioactive Afterlife P(ech) B(lende) has been published in 2016.

Susanne Kriemann (*1972) lebt und arbeitet in Berlin und Karlsruhe. Seit 2017 ist sie Professorin für künstlerische Fotografie an der Staatlichen Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. Bei Spector Books erschien 2016 das Künstlerbuch P(ech B(lende).

The book was designed by Alix Linn Bouteleux, edited by Cassandra Edlefsen Lasch, and comes with text by Eva Wilson, Grit Ruhland and Susanne Kriemann.