AFTER NATURE PRIZE 26 ꟾ Stelios Kallinikou / Susanne Kriemann

In his new project, Stelios Kallinikou (b. 1985) explores Akrotiri Salt Lake, which forms part of a British military base as an overseas territory on Cyprus. The lake is an important wetland habitat in the eastern Mediterranean region, located in close proximity to some of Cyprus’s oldest archaeological sites, and a key wetland habitat for countless flora and fauna.
Kallinikou conveys the tensions between military exploitation, ecolo-gical fragility, and cultural heritage in this place by interweaving multiple time periods. Incorporating photography, film, and sculpture, his project makes visible the complex relationships between land, borders, and sovereignty, inviting viewers to reflect on colonial legacies at Europe’s outer edge.

Susanne Kriemann’s (b. 1973) project ties into her longstanding engagement with uranium and the atomic age. She uses pitchblende—also known as uraninite, and one of the most ancient minerals found on Earth—as a starting point to reflect on geological and atomic timescales through photography, research, and poetry.
Her work incorporates early photographic processes including autoradiography, screenprinting, and heliography, combining the abstract effect of radiation on photosensitive materials with poetic texts and site-specific staging. Her project opens up a critical interplay between the visual world and the use of radioactivity, allowing viewers to understand the emission’s central role in the relationship between humans and the environment.

Curated by Katharina Täschner.

• A joint project of C/O Berlin x Crespo Foundation.