Julian Charrière
Behind Each Fire, A Ghost
November 2, 2024 – Feburary 28, 2025
In Behind Each Fire, A Ghost, Julian Charrière poetically engages with geological, industrial, and cultural processes, shedding light on the dynamic interplay between nature and humanity. The works, created between 2016 and 2024, critically reflect on the material manifestations of energy and the traces left by our extractivist society.
In the video installation And Beneath It All Flows Liquid Fire (2019), Charrière reinterprets the classical iconography of the fountain by introducing its opposing element, fire—a symbol of both destruction and the genesis of civilization. The result is a hypnotic monument to our fossil-driven society.
In the photographic series Buried Sunshines Burn (2023), Charrière reflects on the history of California’s oil fields, whose discovery in the late 19th century transformed the region into an industrial metropolis. The heliographs, produced with bitumen sourced from Los Angeles tar pits, evoke the psychedelic shimmer of California’s counterculture while mirroring the toxic allure of fossil fuels, which have profoundly shaped modern society.
The sculpture series Metamorphism (2016) features meteorite-like stones created by melting down computer technology such as hard drives, circuit boards, and processors into an artificial lava. As a reversal of the typical resource extraction process, these sculptures highlight the material flows of our society and the anthropogenic traces embedded in the planet’s geological layers.
Sun Sets in Stone (2024) unites images of an Ecuadorian cloud forest with fossil relics from the Carboniferous period, bridging the present with a prehistoric past. Through analog double exposure, two biomes separated by millions of years are merged into a single image. The piezographs, printed with coal pigments, create a spectral link between an ecosystem threatened by exploitation and anthropogenic climate change and the photosynthetic origins of fossil fuels.
The exhibition is supported by the Michael & Eleonore Stoffel Foundation, the Stiftung Kunstwissenschaft Köln, and the gallery DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM.
About Julian Charrière
Julian Charrière is a French-Swiss artist based in Berlin whose work has been widely exhibited across renowned institutions and museums worldwide. Employing performance, sculpture, and photography, his projects often emerge from field research in remote and liminal locations such as volcanoes, icefields, and radioactive sites. In these geophysically unique locations, Charrière speculates on alternative histories, examining materials through the expansive lens of geological time. His work explores how our understanding of nature has evolved from Romanticism to the Anthropocene, deconstructing the cultural frameworks that shape our perception and representation of the natural world. A former student at Olafur Eliasson’s Institute for Spatial Experiments, Charrière frequently collaborates with scientists, engineers, art historians, and philosophers. Whether on artistic expeditions or through immersive installations, his work centers on the relationship between humanity and its environment, exploring how each reciprocally shapes the other.
www.julian-charriere.net
@julian.charriere
About nw9
The Stiftung Kunstwissenschaft Köln aims to promote exceptional visual arts, supporting innovative artistic expression and creative processes by providing artists with a platform for their work. nw9.space is not a commercial gallery; rather, it seeks to collaborate with artists, galleries, museums, and other institutions to organize pioneering exhibitions. Research and educational activities are integral to the foundation’s mission. nw9 advances the exploration and understanding of visual arts and offers a platform for art education in Cologne and its surroundings. By fostering dialogue around the visual arts, nw9 contributes to the development of knowledge and ideas in art and art history, encouraging critical thinking, risk-taking, and provocation in the arts. The Michael & Eleonore Stoffel Foundation, Cologne, also a charitable foundation, is the main sponsor.
www.nw9.space
@nw9.space
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