(H) – PhMuseum

(H) explores the paradoxical situation of a life-giving but brutal particle, stating eventualities of connectedness as an act of resistance in opposition to immediately’s socio-environmental fragmentation.

Hydrogen was the primary factor to emerge after the Big Bang. It is the only and lightest of all chemical components, but it accounts for 90% of all atoms within the universe. It additionally composes the water molecule, masking almost three-quarters of the Earth’s floor and about the identical proportion of the human physique. 

In a way, hydrogen varieties the idea of life. However, it’s additionally used to create essentially the most damaging weapon ever made: the hydrogen bomb, through which a thermonuclear fusion course of just like that of the Sun is recreated, unleashing a damaging power far higher than that of atomic bombs.

(H) explores the paradoxical situation of a life-giving but brutal particle. An omnipresent however ethereal, polarised however unifying factor. Pointing out broader eventualities of connectedness as an act of resistance in opposition to immediately’s socio-environmental fragmentation, in a visible essay the place dissonant realms converge harmoniously in opposition to seclusive conceptions of matter. 

Initially conceived as an editorial undertaking, the method consisted of compiling tons of of photos from numerous sources, all associated in a method or one other to hydrogen: astronomy, botany and physics laboratories; H-bomb detonations performed by main nations because the Nineteen Fifties; and private archives exploring water in its totally different varieties. Visual and conceptual hyperlinks amongst these photos have been recognized in an effort to create combos that blurred the hole between their divergent origins, bringing nearer all these distant manifestations of hydrogen. What seems to be a mushroom may equally be a cropped picture of a bomb, a cloud, or a dying star — conveying, by way of this gesture, a way of unification and connectedness. Afterwards, additionally consistent with the undertaking’s idea, the chosen materials was printed and scanned in excessive decision to stress the printing sample shaped by tiny dots, seen from shut vary, as a approach of resembling the construction of matter: particular person, remoted, particles forming a complete.

The similar concepts additionally apply to the curation of the exhibition format, the place the frames don’t isolate the pictures they comprise however as an alternative relate to 1 one other by way of visible hyperlinks within the structure, or by permitting the fabric to maneuver out and in of their borders. The set up factor of the paper stacks is meant to convey a way of abundance and fragility: the variety of connections that exist between distant realms is way broader than these highlighted on the partitions, so it’s amongst these hundreds of printed pages that additional materials may be discovered and introduced collectively; whereas a easy motion may make every part disintegrate.

I really feel this undertaking resonates strongly with the theme of “archipelago” on this version of the pageant, in addition to with a few of immediately’s urgent societal considerations, and has sturdy potential to be curated, with the help of PhMuseum’s group, into a robust and fascinating exhibition. A monograph of the identical undertaking will likely be revealed by Sternthal Books / Idea Books in late summer time 2026, and will probably even be launched or introduced throughout this 12 months’s Photobook Mania. Beyond the visible materials used for each the publication and the earlier exhibition held at Standard/Deluxe, Lausanne, earlier this 12 months — from which the exhibition views come from — there’s loads of different visible materials, round 400 photos with their corresponding captions, compiled throughout the analysis course of. This materials may be used, leaving appreciable flexibility to adapt the undertaking to the pageant’s house.

A preview of the upcoming publication may be discovered through the next hyperlink: www.danielmartinez.ch/project-(h)

More concerning the earlier exhibition at Standard/Deluxe may be discovered through the next hyperlink: www.standard-deluxe.ch/daniel-martinez