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Franck Miltgen

Wäiss Kaul
Luxembourg National Museum of Natural History

Time Travel through an Artificial Coral Reef

Franck Miltgen (b. Luxembourg, 1981; lives and works in Luxembourg) works in a wide variety of media, producing concrete, abstract pictures. Landscape motifs and digital imaging are omnipresent in his art; his most recent project, Wäiss Kaul, produced in cooperation with the National Museum of Natural History in Luxembourg, is a case in point.

The multifaceted project Wäiss Kaul showcases a landscape from the past and sheds light on the geological responsibility mankind has incurred through its industrial exploitation of the earth. What is now a disused quarry and mineral resource on the upland plain of Rumelange, Luxembourg, was once an area where limestone was mined on an industrial scale. The white rocks bear witness to a time when southern Luxembourg lay at the bottom of a tropical ocean. For the centerpiece of the site-specific work, Miltgen developed a 3D scan of the fossil skeletons of the reef that became the basis for an elaborately manufactured concrete sculpture titled Local Coral Reef, which the artist installed in the nearby Ellergronn nature sanctuary. With essays by Marie-Anne Lorgé, Ben Thuy, and the artist.