Is it the sea, is it the wind, is it Flora who prints the print?

The Planetary Printer represents a tool, a rudimentary machine, as well as the person and natural forces that operate it. The Planetary Printer continuously reinvents itself, utilizing local resources such as seaweed, seawater, and natural plant-based colours.

THE PLANETARY PRINTER first floor of Anton Rosen´s House, Samsø

July 5 – September 27, 2024

Here, at the room located on the first floor of the Anton Rosen’s House The Planetary Printer shows More of the ongoing project by the Belgian, and Berlin based artist Ada Van Hoorebeke. Through several artist residencies on the Danish island Samsø since 2021, the artist has experimented with extracting colors from seaweed and plants from, among other places, Samsø. Likewise the paper she prints on, is handmade recycled paper, produced in local artist Ulla Enevoldsen’s paper workshop on the island.

The wooden structure on the 1st floor is reused from a previous exhibition on Samsø and adapted for this exhibition is painted with an oxide pigment from the hardware store, which is typically used to paint wooden houses and fences. The presentation boards consist of recycled cardboard from Bruunshaab Cardboard Factory near Viborg. Some of the screen Printed motifs (‘Vinca’ and the illustration of a shark) are logos from companies that no longer exist, which are reused for new compositions. Van Hoorebeke thus combines materials and processes from the world of mass production with traditional craft methods to produce new meanings.

The Planetary Printer seeks out to bring artists together with non-human actors – such as organic materials, algae, roots and plants as well as sunlight and time – to continuously participate in an ongoing, creative process.

During a printing workshop organized by Agerupgrafik, children and adults interacted with the exhibition’s materials and themes. Here, the concept of ‘planetary news’ was explored, culminating in a newspaper for various species—both human and plant.

The Planetary Printer revolves around and tests the possibilities of recycling and working circularly with materials and nature’s resources, where nature partly is allowed to take over.
By working with invasive species, such as algae, as a basis for creating printing ink and paper, Ada Van Hoorebeke investigates how efforts to reduce climate footprints can lead to new understandings of the properties of algae.

Ada Van Hoorebeke would like to thank Ulla Enevoldsen and the team from Terraform Samsø 2021 for the introduction to the island and its community. She also thanks the Sofam grant (Belgium) and Flanders State of the Art, which made possible an artist residency earlier this year.

The exhibition is organized by Samsø Municipality’s Art Council and supported by The Danish Arts Foundation and Samsø Municipality.