Centre d’innovation et de design au Grand-Hornu, Belgium
“AU CHARBON,” Design in a Post-Carbon Age
September 25, 2022 – January 8, 2023
Curated by Giovanna Massoni and Amandine David

Urban Flotsam, 2022
Over the past two years, artist Ulrike Mohr collected discarded wood by walking the streets of Berlin. Especially during lockdown, many Berliners cleared out their apartments, often leaving materials on the streets for others to take away. Mohr gathered pieces of used cabinet doors, wooden boxes, old shelf boards, and planks. She then cut these found objects into very thin strips of wood and carbonized them. What was once a compact board marked by visible signs of use is transformed through charring into something unfamiliar—infinitely durable yet fragile.

Light as feathers, black, gossamer slices float in the exhibition space, forming new clusters delicately suspended in air. Time seems to expand as visitors walk through this fragile material drawing, and like a swarm of ribbons, the pieces gently move with every breath of wind.