Mine is mine Trailer

2024

Film with sound

25:51 min.

The short film shows improvised interventions in the biggest clay mining area, the Westerwald region in Germany. By interacting with different symbolic objects around the clay mines, we invite the viewer to follow us through layers of intertwined stories of craftspeople, nature, landscape and industry.

What is a clay mine and what it can be? We were inspired by the dynamics between active and passive, now and then and what will come. Where an active mine is, nature stands on the sideline. Machines and people dominate the site. When a mine is no longer in use, nature finds its way back. But even the active mine has its silent fauna: small insects in the water pools, grass and flowers growing on the side of the mines.

Who are we in this? Are we intruders? Are we nature? We are not permitted access to the sites. Like grass, we try to find a small place to grow on. Does the ceramic artist have a special understanding of a clay mine?

These questions were playfully addressed in a role-play somewhere between reality and imagination.

By paying close attention to the situations created, we find ourselves enriched with a new connectedness.

The premiere of Mine is mine took place during the Stockholm Craft Week (4.-6.10.2024). It was presented as a video projection. Besides that a collection of old salt-glazed pots and samples of collected clays from the deepest clay mine in the Westerwald region were exhibited.

The title Mine is mine is borrowed from the upcoming collaboration with A-B Projects, where Tontouristen will lead a „State of Ceramics“ during the Power Dynamics series in May 2025.