Even Dust Can Burst into Flames

Developed during a residency at Raizvanguarda in Góis, Portugal, the project emerged from fieldwork around the territories affected by the devastating wildfires of 2017.

Rather than attempting to represent the fires directly, the research began with materials encountered in the landscape. Burned branches, heat-altered stone and abandoned sheets of paper became the basis for a group of sculptures, frottages and performative actions.

A nest was constructed from carbonised branches gathered in the affected area. Its circular form brings together fragments of vegetation whose original structure had been destroyed by fire. A second work used a stone altered and partly crystallised by extreme heat. During a performance, the stone was deliberately dropped and broken, transforming an object already marked by the fire through a second act of rupture. The photographic sequence records the moment of impact and fragmentation.

The frottages were made on sheets found inside an abandoned paper factory. Placed directly against surfaces encountered during the research, the paper received their textures through rubbing, preserving irregular traces of contact rather than forming descriptive images.

Together, the works register three different material responses to fire: branches become a structure, stone fractures, and paper receives an imprint.