ANOTHER CRACK IN THE WALL

          “With much labour the matter I crackt.” – Jonathan Swift, To Dr. Sheridan (1712)

Another Crack in the Wall is a public space installation, play structure, didactic and sculptural extension for Den Grønne Kile. Placed to encourage social and ecological impacts and to entice conversations around architecture, landscape and material extraction, it consists of 60 tons of left-over blocks of unprocessed marble from Fauske, Norway. Fauske marble originates in a rare, conglomerate formation dating to late Neoproterozoic period, when the earliest life formed in earth’s oceans. The marble is among the most unique in the world, known for its distinct colours, patterns and luminosity. Commercially, it is known as ‘Norwegian Rose’ and ‘Hermelin’, and it has been extracted since 1870.

It is a project of reciprocal landscapes: the Fauske quarry and Den Grønne Kile behind the Aarhus School of Architecture. It begins at the site of extraction, where majestic, Norwegian Spruce trees trace the perimeter of a white-pink hole in the earth. A stone quarry is a beautiful, terrible place – a landscape of contradictions. Carving into the mountain, section cuts reveal a geology of wonderous colours and patterns. It is, by all accounts, unbelievable: the scale, the rocks, the ingenuity of humans to have achieved such a feat. Yet, one cannot help wonder: why not leave the mountain alone? Thousands of blocks, extracted last week or decades ago, litter the edges of the quarry. They are rejected. On account of being the wrong size or colour, or because they have a structural defect, they cannot be sold. Amidst a magnificent tectonic landscape, earth’s ancient geology is sliced up and commodified, and the hubris of humankind is fully revealed.

Another Crack in the Wall is composed of such rejected blocks. To behold a marble block in its massive form, as a chuck of the earth, is a rarity; normally only experienced in the quarry itself. By placing a quarry landscape in Den Grønne Kile, we are reminded that the buildings constructed today will become the quarries for future buildings. It used to be this way as a matter of course. Only after industrialisation did ‘raw’ materials come to dominate our supply networks and construction processes. Materials and elements were simply too valuable to be discarded. Yet, like the rock itself, these ‘re-quarried’ materials will also have cracks and holes. Many will perceive them as flaws or mistakes, even though, in the non-human world, a crack is a welcoming place: a shelter from the sun, a source for water, a place to take root.

The tectonics of the shifting earth formed the geology of these blocks. They sit today in a new configuration following the tectonics of architecture. The weights (in tons) are engraved on the blocks. One of the blocks has been cracked in place (in a performance held during OPEN). The stacking and cracking connect the fauna, flora, insects, and the many people who pass by every day. Together with ‘stoney’ plants, such as Voldtimian, trekløftstenbræk, bidende stenurt, sandskæg, hvid sten-kløver, an ‘Ecology of Stone’ is being cultivated.

Collaborators: Karen Kjærgaard, curator; Fauske Marble by Moser; with generous support from Nykredits Fond

PDF publication by Kårk Magazine for OPEN festival 2024