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Wet[scape] (2024), durational performance with raw sheep wool and water, Systems of Support exhibition at Salzburger Kunstverein, AT.
Wet[scape] is a performance including a floor-based installation comprising raw sheep wool and water. The work explores the intricate relationship between humans and peatlands, considering how material, movement, and ecology can intersect—both as a sensory encounter and as a proposition for environmental restoration.
As performers move slowly across and within the wool, their gestures release water, evoking the way peatlands store and release moisture. This interaction parallels methods currently being tested in conservation projects, in which raw sheep wool is formed into logs that provide structure to bog surfaces, helping to stabilise bare peat and create conditions for the re-establishment of native plant species such as Sphagnum moss.
The installation invites an intimate engagement with the raw material. Its dense, tangled fibres hold an “archive” of dried seeds, grasses, and other organic matter collected over the sheep’s lifetime. Lanolin gives the wool a distinctive scent and a waxy, tactile quality. Through sustained bodily interaction, the soaked fibres interlace, shift, and compress. Over the course of the exhibition, the wool changes – shrinking, reshaping, and transforming – making the work a living, evolving process rather than a fixed object.
A key focus of the work was to engage with donated material – wool as a by-product or, at times, even a waste product – ensuring that no new material was brought into the world. Instead, the project followed an existing cycle, giving the wool a new role within the context of performance and installation. After the exhibition, the wool will become part of a future community-based project, continuing its material journey beyond the gallery space.
Special thanks to the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Amberwood Animal Sanctuary, and Bioarche Rocherbauer for their generous donation of sheep wool.
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Performers: Maite Dárdano & Lenz Farkas
Photography: Susanne Garber
Videography: Caroline Vitzthum