Material that Slips Through your Fingers

The project Latent Accumulations at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity« examines paraffin, an elusive material, from its accumulations on the Baltic coast of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania to its pressing environmental and geopolitical concerns.

Similar to amber, but different in size and number, they lie on the beach of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania: gray-white or yellow-brownish waxy clumps, some of them larger, some smaller, inconspicuous and smelling remotely of petroleum: »Paraffin is constantly exposed to the environment. It is formed by cold or dissolved by heat and mixed with sand,« says Iva Rešetar, a researcher at the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«. The architect is interested not only in the transformation of the material itself, but also in its distribution in the landscape, particularly in connection with the crude oil infrastructure of the surrounding industries.

Paraffin is never alone and isolated, is one of the initial theses of the Latent Accumulations project. »It crosses the threshold between the sea and the coast, the geopolitical border between Lithuania and Russia — suddenly it appears in large quantities, sometimes it accumulates gradually,« notes her project colleague, environmental media scholar and cultural anthropologist Léa Perraudin. If and when this happens is unpredictable for the residents and employees of the Curonian Spit National Park.

An invitation to the material archive of the Sitterwerk Foundation in St. Gallen, Switzerland, served as opportunity for a closer examination of this unstable material. The fact that materials like paraffin are exhibited there together with similar substances such as beeswax or fats as pure, solid substances »made us question this way of ordering and stabilizing things«, says Iva Rešetar. Paraffin wax, with its in-between state, sometimes liquid, sometimes solid, lends itself to such an inquiry. In the neighboring art foundry, the two were able to observe »how it is repeatedly melted, solidified and formed in the processes of art production«, serving as an auxiliary material for artistic practices.

This research is embedded in the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, whose name alludes to the fact that both materials and matters are active and prone to change. In architecture, the focus is usually on durable structures made of concrete and steel and generally, on solid materials, rather than on their environments, Iva Rešetar points out. She is particularly interested in transient materials, such as waxes, which change their state in interplay with their surroundings and environmental conditions.

Rešetar and Perraudin traveled to the Curonian Spit again in January 2025 as part of a research residency at the Nida Art Colony of the Vilnius Academy of Arts to continue their work on paraffin. In the summer of 2024, they started their site-specific joint investigation at the coast of the UNESCO World Heritage Site to observe the paraffin pollution within the landscape.

The emergence of paraffin wax is also interesting from a historical perspective, says Léa Perraudin. The white translucent, odorless by-product was produced in large quantities during the refining of crude oil—and used in the food and cosmetics industries, as well as in medical technologies. As to why it is deposited as waste in the Baltic Sea, there are various theories put forward by researchers and environmental initiatives.

The town of Nida is close to the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad—an almost invisible border in the middle of the World Heritage Site. »The issue of nature conservation is particularly urgent here,« says Perraudin. According to one theory, it is the oil platform situated in the Russian part of the Baltic Sea polluting the coast when the currents are adverse and strong. The other theory blames the oil tankers that illegally clean their tanks in the open sea, releasing paraffin residues into the water. »The material could then change from a liquid to a solid state when it mixes with the cold water.«

In 2020, the National Park Administration organized the largest collection campaign to date, in which the clumps of paraffin filled entire containers. »People were forced to take action,« says Iva Rešetar. »We spoke to residents, port officials, and marine scientists from the University of Klaipeda to get a picture of paraffin pollution from different perspectives.« However, the two researchers aim to go beyond the gathering of scientific facts and have developed their own methods to get closer to the elusive material.

»During our walks with people who know the area or visit the Curonian Spit, we talk about the memories they associate with paraffin,« reports Léa Perraudin. »We recognize that in order to negotiate such urgent ecological and social issues, we need to engage directly with people from local civil society.«

From an anthropological perspective, different dynamics can be observed in how differently people deal with the material and the uncertainty of where it comes from. A woman who grew up on the Curonian Spit, for example, said that as a child she often visited the beach with her family in the summer. »She was surprised. She attributed the smell of the paraffin, heated by the sun, to the beach itself,« as Perraudin notes. »In this way, the material becomes irreversibly mixed with the environment and inscribed in the local memory«.

The project also aims to criticize the way in which natural resources are exploited, separated into their different components, and ultimately returned to the environment as waste or chemicals—with all the consequences for the surrounding communities and people. »Crude oil and minerals are being extracted from the earth as a seemingly self-evident operation to fuel our technological culture,« says Perraudin. The cultural anthropologist considers herself part of a more recent field of research known as »environmental humanities«, which focuses on this conflict-ridden relationship and approaches it from critical perspectives, such as feminist and decolonial theories. »I want to know what happens when unstable materials slip through our fingers. This is not a neutral process, but a matter of public concern.«

In solid form, paraffin is considered marine litter; in liquid form, it is considered chemical pollution and is therefore subject to different legislation. It is striking that its physical state determines how to deal with the material, legally or otherwise. The project contributes to conversations about the ecological crisis and ways of living together in shifting landscapes

Iva Rešetar adds that the Baltic coast is now less polluted by paraffin, and awareness of the problem has increased. Still, stricter laws are important to stop ships dumping polluted wastewater into the sea. »Every tanker clean-up provokes a clean-up on the beach afterwards.« A never-ending activity, since the paraffin clumps keep washing up in unpredictable ways. »Our collaborative methods focus on finding careful ways for researching and preserving of fragile landscapes.«

From May 10th to 31st, Latent Accumulations can be visited at the Tieranatomisches Theater on the North Campus of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The exhibition kicks off with a Roundtable discussion on May 9th at 6:30 pm that approaches materials at thresholds from different disciplinary positions in environmental media, architecture, design, curatorial practice, and materials science. Latent Accumulations is presented as a guest exhibition within the exhibition project muddy measures. when wetlands and heritage converse by the Centre for Advanced Studies »inherit. heritage in transformation« and is part of the _matter Festival of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.

This is the English translation of the article by Isabel Fannrich-Lautenschläger, which was first published on the HU website on April 23rd, 2025.