26.11.23 - 01.12.23
VISIT: Ti02-project
Marte Johnslien, Ingrid Halland, Tonje Haugaland Sørensen (senior researcher at NorWhite), Helene Birkeli (Postdoc at NorWhite), Julia K. Persson (assistant at MoW), Gjertrud Steinsvåg (head of ROM), Solveig Tjetland (producer at ROM) and Enrique Roura (production manager and exhibition architect). Plus 4 of Martes KHiO students.
ABOUT Ti02:
The background to the "TiO2 project" is Norwegian industrial history and the invention of the method for producing the white pigment titanium dioxide (TiO2). The "whitest white" color was developed by Norwegian chemists Peder Farup and Gustav Jebsen in the years 1910 to 1918. The method established the white pigment on the world market from 1918 and changed the appearance of the modern world. The color white is read by our eyes as something intangible, but the white pigment leaves a deep impression. TiO2 is extracted from ilmenite in the Titania AS mine in Rogaland and the process causes irreversible and extensive damage to nature. After further processing at the Kronos Titan factory in Fredrikstad, the material travels seemingly invisibly in a global network of systems. It is used in paint, plastic bags, fish products, candy, sunscreen and millions of other everyday products used around the world. In many cultures, the color white represents purity, innocence, power and progress. "The TiO2 project aims to expand our understanding of the color white by highlighting the history and materiality of today's most common white pigment, titanium dioxide.
