Kötter/Israel/Limberg
Water & Coltan
Oil Shale
from the series: landscapes and bodies
landscapes and bodies by German artist collective Kötter/Israel/Limberg is a serial documentary performance and media project that is dedicated to the political, social, and ecological consequences of mining on landscape and communities in Indonesia, DR Congo, Estonia and Germany.
Viimsi ARTIUM presents two parts of the series: “Water & Coltan” and “Oil Shale”.
Water & Coltan is presented in a large scale performance parcours combining live performances and 360° documentary films. Visiting the parcours takes 108 minutes and can be visited by up to 5 visitors per time slot (entrance every 10 minutes).
Oil Shale consists of a large film and space installation, a book to read, and a concert by Estonian Industrial Band KEETAI.
The tickets for the time slots of Water & Coltan are also valid for the Oil Shale installation on all days and the concert by KEETAI on Saturday, September 17th at 9.30pm.
Oil Shale installation:
15 september: 3pm-11.30pm
16 september: 3pm-11.30pm
17 september: 12.30pm-11.30pm
Oil Shale concert feat. KEETAI:
17 september, 9.30pm
Water & Coltan
15 september and 16 september
starting times: 5pm, 5.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm
17 september
starting times: 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm, 3.30pm, 5.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, 8.30pm, 7pm
Water & Coltan
deals with the consequences of mining on landscape and communities in West Germany and the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the 600 pumps have stopped in the former german coal mining area around Ruhr river the living environment of 15 million people has been flooded and depopulated. Only a distant perspective on these german post-human mining landscapes allows to imagine a future for our planet. Water & Coltan transports its audience directly to the places of the struggle of women in artisanal mining camps in South Kivu in DR Congo. There Colombit Tantalit (Coltan), named after the ancient Greek Tantalus story, is extracted, the resource needed for all our mobile phones, jet engines and VR glasses.
Based on a shared research of the filmmaker Daniel Kötter with the Congolese social worker Yasmine Bisimwa, lawyer Olande Byamungu and engineer Christian Muhighwa, also featuring as live performers in the piece, the immersive and performative experience makes you walk through a parcours of 12 container rooms, where the audience takes on the role of the travellers themselves, encountering german and congolese landscapes and its people. We learn how western forms of extractivism, supply chain capitalism and genocide are deeply intertwined with our every day life.
Oil Shale
guides its audience to one of the locations where the future of Europe is at stake. The economic and social impact of Oil Shale mining at the border between EU and Russia, Eastern Virumaa, Estoniam, has dramatically changed several times in history in the course of political turmoil, war and the drawing of borders. The film and space installation reiterates these changes by incorporating interviews with the inhabitants of the Eastern Virumaa mining region representing different generations, walks of life and occupations, and is combined with a concert by the Russian-Estonian industrial rock band KEETAI. “This is no longer the Soviet Union, but it is still a union, isn’t it?”

