Assembling the Coast - Matters of Activity

Assembling the Coast is a sensorial-ethnographic investigation of a coastal replenishment project on the Baltic Sea, close to Ahrenshoop. Erosion and rising sea level lead to coastal retreat and frequent replenishments are used to counteract this process. The film work captures the interplay of man, machine, and matter as they perform the laborious process of transforming the environment. Intimate shots and on-site sound recording convey an immersive experience that contrasts the violence of land reclamation with the unruly behavior of sand, wind, and water. Our aim is to emphasize that the beach is not just there, but it is made and continues to be remade by competing forces, human and other. As such, the work also functions as a reminder that what we conceive of as »nature« is not self-evident. Most of our surroundings are shaped by technologies processes resulting in landscapes that are both natural and constructed. Assembling the Coast is a collaboration by researcher and filmmaker Michaela Büsse, sound artist and composer Andreas Kühne, and visual researcher and cinematographer Konstantin Mitrokhov.

Commissioned for Material Legacies Design Lab#13, Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Oktober 2022–February 2023.