kataklasit (2017) 

Video installation
Duration 10′
Sandra Schmid (Video)
Annie Rüfenacht (Music)
2017

The jury of the Giga-Hertz Award 2020 awards the Swiss artist duo Annie Rüfenacht & Sandra Schmid an Honorary Mention. The jury was impressed by their work Kataklasit, with which Rüfenacht & Schmid explore visual and acoustic aspects of stones. Their meticulous approach, bordering on scientificity, uses a microscopic eye and ear to achieve a highly abstract dissolution of the recrystallization processes. The result is a visual surface that traces changes in the structure of the stones which is reflected in multiple, finely graduated and dissected shades of grey, as well as an acoustic surface that illustrates the subliminal nature of the processes by oscillating between field recordings and colored noise. In its overall effect, however, Kataklasit stands out especially for its fine, harmonious and atmospheric overall impression. The double character of the work, between scientificity and abstraction, impressed the jury to a great extent.

Jury statement by Björn Gottstein

Honorary Mention for Annie Rüfenacht & Sandra Schmid for Kataklasit

Cataclasites are solid rocks with a mostly non-directional-chaotic microstructure, which was formed by fractured deformation and dynamic recrystallization due to tectonic forces. Asphalt and stone dissolve, merge with digital fragments, these merge again with water, the water with stone, to always unite in an astal-like landscape. The piece Kataklasit deals with the ephemeral, the independent in nature and in the digital world.

Last shown 2020, GigaHertz Award, ZKM, Karlsuhe, Germany