Stone Villa & Topographies of Impact (2020 ~ 2022)
Deriving from the microcontinent in the Paleozoic era, Avalonia is interpreted (by certain communities) to embody a contemporary resistance to our modern landscape informed and shaped by the post-industrial and neoliberal subjectivities today.
Once a site of mineral extraction and exploitation, Avalonia now lives and breathes as a place of play for those aforementioned communities: artisans, climbers, and various other curious minds.
Located in the Ruhr region in Germany, Avalonia is a land-art project continually developed by sculptor Daniel Pauline and other frequent collaborators.
“Stuff of My Heart” - Video journal, April 2022
Avalonia: Topographies of Impact
Camila Chebez — Art Director
Leo Scarin — Creative Technologist
Haru Legouge — Director of Photography
Maarten Keus — Curatorial Advisor
Set in Siche typeface by Caterina Santullo
visit graduation.kabk.nl/2022/camila-chebez for more
“When we trust our bodies and the rock to take us through this process of oscillation, between pulling away and coming closer again, we are capable of becoming an object with and for the world, and return to being a subject in the world. This makes stone, in all its metamorphic states and scales not only a passive canvas foreshadowing the insatiable human passion for meaning and recording, but an active agent with its tectonic-like rhythms that challenges our very feet and senses into a different dance with the cosmos.”
— Camila Chebez, Becoming Matter & A Matter of Perspective: A journey into proximity with the skin of Avalonia
An interactive experience project designed by Camila Chebez for her 2022 graduation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, The Netherlands
Discover more through her thesis here
‘A place of play’
Being three hours away from home with a car, Avalonia is a fairly accessible spot to both climb and to escape the city. As an observer and a listener to the stories surrounding the place and the characters in it, I often find myself drawn to the sense of fascination shared by the climbing communities.
While I do climb as a regular pastime, I don’t concern myself very much with the historical developments, the competitive landscape, nor the governing politics of climbing. I don’t like to document a sport for the sake of it either. The photographs I have taken on the first trip to Avalonia didn’t mean anything further than just some trip memories with a couple of friends, and there wasn’t anything to build upon them either.
But upon finding more materials and sources highlighting the backstory of the place and Daniel Pauline’s personal involvement, I became invested in the development of the place, and more importantly what it meant to a couple of people I know.
Having a rather inconclusive concept of ‘home’ myself, I don’t normally care much for having sentimental attachments or putting emotional investment into places. But getting to know Avalonia has slightly changed this view.
This body of work presented here is made up of visual materials I’ve collected over the times I’ve (re)visited Avalonia (I think over 6 times at least, but I’ve stopped counting).
