Nico Joana Weber’s multimedia installation Fragen an eine Geologin (Questions to a Geologist), which she developed specifically for this location, spans the three platforms on the third floor of the Schaudepot.
Fragen an eine Geologin
Nico Joana Weber, Fragen an eine Geologin
Here, the artist combines her current film and photographic works with pieces and objects from past projects to create a multifaceted constellation of works that establishes connections not only to the Ruhr Museum’s collection and the Mineralogical Collection of Ruhr University Bochum but also to the artist Sigmar Polke.
For his Athanor installation—which won the Golden Lion—at the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1986, Polke had borrowed a meteorite and a quartz crystal from the (then) Ruhrlandmuseum. On that occasion the artist had asked Ulrike Stottrop, who was in charge of the collection at the time, questions about minerals, pigments, and stones.
This historical context serves as the starting point for an artistic exploration of objects from the Ruhr Museum’s collection and leads to an on-site intervention in the former salt factory, which presents the Ruhr region as an important (historical) site for the procurement, research, and preservation of natural raw materials and minerals. At the same time, the former coal-mining city of Essen intertwines here with the city of art, Venice—a magical place known for its unique light, which, thanks to its special location on the lagoon and its own history of trade, has always stood for the convergence of different cultures and the associated transfer of art and knowledge.
In Weber’s installation, questions about the origin, migration, and presentation of natural materials and objects intersect with questions about the potential for transforming materials and images per se.
Nico Joana Weber (*1983) works with artistic research methods with the aim of finding creative expression. Her work often starts with site-specific and literary research, travel, collecting materials, and archival work. She's especially interested in processes of transformation and appropriation, as well as making hidden narratives visible. She studied Fine Art and Art History at Goldsmiths College London and completed postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. She has already received numerous awards, including the Bonn Art Prize (2019), the North Rhine-Westphalia Young Artists' Award (2017) and the Villa Romana Prize (2016). Her works have been presented in a series of international exhibitions and screenings.
With curatorial support by Kathrin Barutzki, Anna Polke Foundation, Cologne.
On 15 November 2026, 3:00 p.m., an artist talk will take place in conjunction with the exhibition.
Nico Joana Weber, Fragen an eine Geologin
Exhibition, 18 October–6 December 2026, Schaudepot des Ruhr Museums auf Zollverein, Essen