During their stay in Ireland, the artists Yulia Carolin Kothe, Katerina Sidorova and Max Brück researched various socio-political, mythical and ecological aspects of layers of the boggy moorland, the ‘Wild Lands’, part of the Glenkeen Garden property. On site, they collected personal, historical, and mythical stories about the bog. Within this context, they explored the process of producing the so-called ‘bog butter’ — moor butter that is crea ted by a fermentation process triggered by sinking ceramic and wooden vessel into the boggy soil.

Based on their research, Kothe, Sidorova and Brück created sculptural objects that mimic these tra ditional ‘bog butter’ vessels. Embed ded in an installative (moor) landscape, the recordings of the stories echo from the vessellike sculptures. In this way, the artists translate the various layers of the moorland itself and the relationship between humans and the bog into a polyphonic, multimedia structure with open pathways that welcome individual exploration.

Yulia Carolin Kothe is a visual artist based between Glasgow and Frankfurt am Main. Her practice moves between sculpture, sound, writing, installation, and performance, often responding to archival material, queer feminist theory, personal, and oral histories. The processual nature of her practice breaks away from the notion of a singular, finished work and leads to site-specific and contextual modes of display. Kothe has completed a master’s degree at the Glasgow School of Art and the Kunsthochschule Mainz. Recent works have been shown at Kunstverein Bellevue-Saal, Wiesbaden (2024), David Dale Gallery, Glasgow (2023), Neuer Kunstverein Mittelrhein, Neuwied (2023), French Street, Glasgow (2023), Rosa Stern, München (2022), Atletika Gallery, Vilnius (2020).

Max Brück grew up in a small village in Hesse. He studied Fine Arts at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. After graduating in 2019, he received a work stipend from the Kunstfonds Foundation in Bonn and an upcoming young talent award from the Frankfurter Künstlerhilfe. In 2022, he was awarded a travel grant from the Hessian Cultural Foundation, which allowed him to explore industrial sites in Poland. Since 2023, Brück has been a research assistant in the Experimental Space Concepts department at Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach. His work focuses on personal and site-specific memory. Recently, his work has been presented at various venues, including Rondo Sztuki (Katowice), Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt), Berlin Art Week (Berlin), and Bistro 21 (Leipzig).

Katerina Sidorova is a visual artist and researcher based in The Hague. Working with installation, performance, and text, she looks at multiple facets of mortality and necropolitics in her practice. She obtained a BFA from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University, Russia, an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and a PhD from the Philosophy Department of Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University. Recent group exhibitions include ‘Bottleneck’ at West, The Hague, ‘As a Pile of Ash’ at 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow, and ‘Gläserner Mensch’ at Dürst Britt and Mayhew, The Hague. Her latest publications are ‘Martyrdom Body State Manifesting Power’ (2020) and ‘The Game of Knives’ (2022).

(As of 2024)