dissolve is a video artwork that meditates on environmental transformation and the fragile interplay between human presence and the natural world. At its centre lies the skeletal remains of a fig cactus, slowly moved by hand. As sand pours down, it gradually buries the structure – an act that echoes the ongoing erosion of the land, a process intensified by climate change.

Set against the backdrop of a decaying salt extraction site and the worn silhouettes of eroded mountains, the scene unfolds as a quiet narrative of disappearance. The falling sand becomes a visual metaphor for the loss and reshaping of the earth itself. Through this meditative gesture, the work shifts attention away from the individual and toward the agency of the land – its rhythms, its decay, its quiet persistence. dissolve invites reflection on the delicate balance between human intervention and natural transformation, and on the traces both forces leave behind.

Concept and Performance
Patricia Woltmann

Camera and Editing
Saeed Foroghi

Sound
Diane Barbe

Developed during the residency “Desire and Disaster” at AADK, Spain.
Supported by Culture Moves Europe, funded by the European Union and Goethe Institut