WORKS

The artist collective "bacilli" (Shotaro Yoshino, Yoshitaka Nanjo, and James Jack) focuses on the soil within the Zollverein coal mine heritage site in the Ruhr region of Germany, and attempts to perceive and represent the energy inherent in the land through the activity of microorganisms present there. This project aims to reconsider energy not as an anthropocentric resource concept, but as a phenomenon rooted in geological time and ecological processes.

This residency, based on geological surveys of coal seams, involved conducting interviews with residents of the Ruhr region to collect perceptions and memories of "energy" in a region closely linked to industrial history. These surveys are positioned as research aimed at comprehensively understanding the interrelationships between human imagination, power circuits, and soil ecosystems.

Furthermore, "Dirt DJ," developed as part of the project, presents alternative methods of energy collection and expression starting from the activity of soil and microorganisms, and is an attempt to evoke sensitivity to the symbiotic relationship between humans and other species. The results have been presented as a radio work at lumbung radio and have also been developed into the cover visual for a music album scheduled to be released at the Thai Biennale.

This project is positioned as an attempt to envision a future based on a collaborative relationship between humans and other life forms living underground, through artistic practice and research.

»bacilli (Shotaro Yoshino, Yoshitaka Nanjo & James Jack; based in the archipelago of Japan) listen closely to the energy of microorganisms inside the soil in Zollverein—what do these bacteria inside of land say to us? In this residency we layered geological research on coal memories, oral histories with residents in Ruhr on what gives them energy today and connecting power circuits with imaginative thinking.Dirt DJ shares artistic methods for harvesting alternative energy that heightens human awareness of other species. Currently this is taking the shape of radio programs including a track released on

Lumbung Radio

and a new album cover that will appear in the

Thailand Bienle

. We continue to search for ways we as humans can live synergistically together with other species living in earth.«