Constanza Carvajal
From Blue to Yellow (2024)
Reading Room III
Textile Installation
The textile installation explores the nature of rechargeable lithium batteries, which power technologies such as AI driven systems, smartphones, electric vehicles, and renewable energy storage devices. It emphasizes the role of lithium in enabling the portability and accessibility of trained, stored, and transmitted information across devices. The large mattress in the foyer acts as a “battery recharge station”. Inviting collective rest, where bodies can take up space, make time, release tension, and place their complete weight recharging their own energy.
The installation visually refers to mining facilities in the Atacama Desert, a global key extraction site where lithium is refined in pools that shift in color from blue to yellow, reflecting the increasing purity of the mineral. At the same time, it addresses the mining industrie’s impact on the ecosystem, like the use of scarce water in a desert.
The work incorporates two layers of information: a color palette inspired by the eye-catching aerial images of these lithium pools and text excerpts from online articles discussing the future of its disruptive extractivism.
The the transition from blue to yellow can be seen as an analogy to a shift from melancholy, or introspection, to a brighter, more hopeful, or energized state of vitality as in a charged and reboosted system.
Dates
Location
HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2.
