At the Roman sacrificial altars on MOUNT SAPO, fat from burnt offerings was allegedly mixed with plant ash, forming a primitive soap. Rain is said to have washed this substance into a nearby river, where locals discovered that their laundry became noticeably cleaner when washed there. This story, however, is widely regarded as a hoax or piece of folk mythology and frequently appears online, often in the context of promoting soap sales. Amid growing concerns about harmful ingredients in commercial products, more people are turning to homemade cosmetics as a way to avoid potential risks and regain control over what they apply to their bodies.

STONE, METAL, BONES, SOULS, ASHES is inspired by materialities as they appear in video games, horror films and survival strategies, serving as intermediaries, helpers, placeholders or harbingers of something that we find difficult or impossible to imagine—something intimately tied to our own finitude.

The title STONE, METAL, BONES, SOULS, ASHES is borrowed from an exemplary enumeration in Cyclonopedia:

“Pulp-horror, archaic science fiction and the darker aspects of folklore share a preoccupation with exhumation of or confrontation with ancient super-weapons categorized as Inorganic Demons or xenolithic artifacts. These relics or artifacts are generally depicted in the shape of objects made of inorganic materials (stone, metal, bones, souls, ashes, etc.).

Autonomous, sentient and independent of human will, their existence is characterized by their forsaken status, their immemorial slumber and their provocatively exquisite forms. (…) Inorganic demons are parasitic by nature, they… generate their effects out of the human host, whether as an individual, an ethnicity, a society or an entire civilization.“ (Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials by Reza Negarestani, 2008, in: Mark Fisher: „The Weird and the Eerie“, Watkins Media Limited 2016.)

Mark Fisher explores the aesthetics of the „weird“ and the „eerie“ as cultural and philosophical concepts. The „weird“ is characterized by the presence of something that doesn’t belong, creating a sense of alienation or intrusion, while the „eerie“ emerges from the absence of something expected or the presence of an unsettling force. He examines these ideas across literature, film, and art, drawing on examples to show how these modes disrupt our understanding of reality and provoke existential reflections. Fisher´s exploration of haunting is deeply tied to his concept of „the ghostly“ in cultural, social, and political contexts. Haunting, is not merely about spectral presences but about what lingers, persists, or refuses to be fully erased. Fisher connects haunting to the notion of „lost futures“—possibilities and potentials that were once imaginable but have been foreclosed by historical and political developments, particularly under the influence of capitalism. ///