Entstaubung
This project explores memory, transformation, and the unseen through a site-specific sound and spatial installation. At its center is an industrial object designed to extract dust from the air—used to prevent underground dust explosions—which becomes a poetic starting point. Artist and architect Nathalie Brum discovered this rare model of a dedusting unit made by Marl-based company CFH. Originally engineered for mining and tunnel construction, the object is reimagined as a daylight sculpture, bridging history, recollection, and the present.
Brum embeds this technical relic within a layered acoustic environment that forms an immersive experience. The soundscape, created from recordings at the production site and filtered industrial noises, is interwoven with human voices. These voices—anonymized and re-spoken by the artist herself—share stories of depth, clarity, and everyday dust. Over weeks, Brum collected reflections from 17 individuals aged between 14 and 94, prompted by open-ended questions about work, memory, and filtration. Their responses reveal traces of inner processes and hidden labor, reaching from the postwar era to the digital present.
Translucent, copper-hued tulle fabric—evocative of dusty air and ritual veils—adds a visual layer of permeability and enclosure. Draped as semi-transparent membranes, the fabrics frame the 360-degree sculpture and invite a slow, contemplative orbit.
In Entstaubung, object, sound, and space converge into a multi-voiced narrative. The work unearths sediments of lived experience, allows voices to speak through material, and brings layered memories from underground to the surface.
In Entstaubung, object, sound, and space converge into a multi-voiced narrative. The work unearths sediments of lived experience, allows voices to speak through material, and brings layered memories from underground to the surface.
Sound and Spatial Installation
18 May - 05 October 2025, Skulpturenmuseum Marl, Germany
Duration: approx. 52 minutes (ongoing installation)
18 May - 05 October 2025, Skulpturenmuseum Marl, Germany
Duration: approx. 52 minutes (ongoing installation)
Nathalie Brum
Commissioned by
Skulpturenmuseum Marl | Kultursekretariat Gütersloh
Funded by
Ministerium Kultur Wissenschaft | Freundeskreis Habakuk | Vest Recklinghausen | Ruhr Kunst Museen | WDR3
Friendly supported by
CFH Holding
all photographs by Philip Kistner