While the Fire Burns

2024
Three-channel video installation, HD, 10:24 Min, Stereo

While the Fire Burns is a project about both the destructive and the regenerative properties of fire in relation to the landscape. The work identifies and visualizes different manifestations of fire and introduces multiple perspectives on the role of fire in the ecosystem.

The three-channel video installation encompasses footage from a wildfire in the Swiss Alps, as well as recordings from the fire brigade that were made with a thermal camera. The project furthermore shows that what remains after a wildfire, besides the pioneering vegetation that emerges in the burnt and blackened land. The final perspective the work sheds a light on is the ancient practice of controlled burning, in this case the controlled burning of shrubs in Alp regions. All visuals are accompanied by a tailor-made soundtrack, made in collaboration with Pjotr Lasschuit, that poetically amplifies all stages of fire.

Shown in a loop, the installation offers the possibility to enter the story at any point and to experience the cyclical nature of fire. By placing different forms of fire, views on fire, locations and moments in relation to each other, While the Fire Burns kaleidoscopically traverses space and time, and ultimately asks the question how to live with fire – now and in the future.