Marilen Rauch’s exhibition Unmaking Stones traces feldspar from the former Forshammar mine through a process of transformation. Following fieldwork at the mine, the artist built a ceramic ball mill and milling jars to grind 300 kg of feldspar sand into powder throughout the exhibition. Through collective milling, visitors become part of an encounter between mineral, machine and human action. The exhibition reveals the site-specific histories and properties of a mineral often encountered only in processed forms.

Unmaking Stones continues an exploration of feldspar, extraction and the hidden material histories embedded in ceramic materials. The work builds on field trips to the former Forshammar feldspar mine in Sweden, including research, writing and the exhibition ”Unearthing Sedimented Memories” (2025). These investigations centred on the relationship between geological formations, mining practices and ceramic production.

Although feldspar is one of the most abundant mineral groups on Earth, it is rarely encountered in its original form. Omnipresent in porcelain, glass, ceramic glazes, filler in paints and many other everyday materials, feldspar has become an invisible component of our built environment. Within the ceramic practice it is usually encountered only after transformation, as a processed powder used in clay bodies, porcelain and glazes. Through extraction and production, the geological origins of the mineral often become distant from our everyday encounters with it.

The exhibition brings together different states of feldspar from Forshammar: stones collected from the landscape around the mine and remaining feldspar stocks from the former mining operation. Together they reveal different stages in the material’s journey: from geological formation, extraction and processing to ceramic transformation.

While ball mills are common tools in ceramic studios, this work focuses on making the process of transformation itself tangible. By building the machine and its milling jars, the work creates an encounter with a transformation usually hidden behind ready made tools and processed materials. Through making and handling the material, the work invites an embodied understanding of feldspar through its weight, texture, colour, smell, sound and ceramic properties. Throughout the exhibition, visitors become part of the gradual transformation of feldspar through collective milling.

The milling jars are made from different clay and porcelain bodies and glazed with feldspar from the same source. They become part of the transformation they enable, bringing together the mineral, the ceramic process and the tools through which the material changes.

Bergrummet forms another layer of the work. The space itself is a place where stone has already been transformed by human hands. Its stone walls and vaulted structure carry traces of construction, labour and changing uses. Within this stone architecture, another material transformation takes place. A mineral formed over geological time is altered through mechanical movement, ceramic processes and human interaction.

Unmaking Stones is not about undoing the stone, but about reconsidering the processes and relationships through which materials become understood and used. The work asks what forms of material knowledge emerge when minerals are encountered not only through their final applications, but through the making of the tools and the processes that transform them.

Marilen Rauch

Marilen Rauch is a visual artist working in the expanded field of ceramic art. Her practice lies at the intersection of site-specific ceramic installation, sound and performative art. She creates dialogues and explorative synergies between landscapes, their materials, and the transformations they undergo. Working primarily with local, self-extracted clay, ceramic minerals such as feldspar and field recordings, she investigates how geological processes, extraction and human intervention shape our relationship to place through sensory and material approaches. Her practice explores how material processes can be documented and remembered beyond the fired ceramic object, expanding our perception of the environments and materials that constitute the ground we stand on. She is interested in the ephemeral states of extractive landscapes, examining their material and immaterial properties. Her work takes the form of sculptures, site-responsive installations and collaborative projects, including Tontouristen Kollektiv.

She holds an MFA in Ceramic Art from the Academy of Art and Design at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and a BA in Communication Design from Mainz University of Applied Sciences, including studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Poland.

Her work has been exhibited at Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (KR), Konstnärshuset Stockholm (SE), European Ceramic Context, Bornholm (DK), Keramikkünstlerhaus Neumünster (DE), Höganäs Museum and Konsthall (SE), Salt Museum, Jeungdo (KR), Kaolin (SE), 3e Våningen (SE), Grafik-Kabinett Backnang (DE), Vent Space, Tallinn (EE), Performing Ecofeminism, Frankfurt (DE), Farmstudio (CZ).