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Marina Sulima (1996) works with ceramics, drawing and film. She creates essayistic installations that focus on the Earth’s surface. Research indicates that within a hundred years, much of the planet’s fertile topsoil will be irreversibly damaged by extraction, pollution and erosion caused by industrial agriculture. Sulima zooms in on the consequences of viticulture, and on what viticulture in turn demands of the soil. Worldwide, many millions of grapevines depend on minuscule, blue copper sulphate crystals to combat crop diseases. Yet this struggle against disease has a severe downside: copper accumulates in the soil and disrupts microbial life, including bacteria and soil fungi.
Of Climbing Vines and Copper Crystals (2025) engages with the history and the paradoxes of the wine industry, and its relationship to the pesticides that work with these bright-blue crystals. The work examines the pharmakon inherent in copper sulphate: a substance that, depending on the dosage, can be toxic. Sulima weaves the history of this substance with Paștele Blajinilor, a Moldavian burial ritual that is commemorated annually. This day centres on shared meals at the graves of family members, accompanied by homemade wine.
Through a series of riso prints and a ‘body’ constructed from grapevines, ceramics and laboratory equipment, Sulima poses a central question: how do you compose a balanced world with wine, worms and these bright blue crystals? What habits of cultivation and family celebration should we reform to care for the topsoil and its capacity to sustain life in the future?
Written by: Kelly-ann van Steveninck