disfiguration land, by benedikt terwiel

For centuries, humans have been bending the landscape to their will, adapting it to their needs. Even so, these interventions leave deep wounds in the land, some of which we don’t even know exist. Disfiguration Land reveals these scars, adopting the vision of a negative evolution of the landscape where prosperity, development and wealth give way to the devastation and disfigurement of our surroundings. Created by Benedikt Terwiel, this exhibition comprises two works that are interconnected in their exploration of the landscape, a recurring theme in the artist’s work.

Land before Last (2024) is a film based on several data sets from the Dutch National Land Survey, which together form a terrain model of the country’s surface. However, all human development and life of any kind has been erased, leaving only traces of settlements recognised in the marks carved into the land. ANOHNI’s voice guides us through this vast archaeological site, but it’s not clear where we are and in which direction we are looking, towards the future or the past. The erasure of life is similar to the erasure of history; it is a landscape of memory that has been stripped of its witnesses and narratives.

In Germany, Muttersteine (mother stones) are lithographic limestones used until the middle of the 20th century to archive and update maps of the country. The countless changes result in a topography of retouches that document the transformations of the landscapes over time. Terwiel’s eponymous work is based on a scanning of the surface of a stone that documents the area of the Berlin neighbourhoods of Spandau and Charlottenburg from industrialisation until the 1930s. Enlargements of this stone reveal landscapes in which the retouching morphs into a cratered and fragmented terrain that almost seems to anticipate its later destruction during the war.

support república portuguesa – cultura / direção-geral das artes. rtcp – rede de teatros e cineteatros portugueses.