Field Notes II. RELIQUIE WEIN4 - Spurensicherung Laa

Field Notes: December 8 & 20, 2025 Location: Mailberg vicinity; West of Ernstbrunn, Lower Austria, Austria

Encounter Summary: Along the roadside cut west of Mailberg, I unfolded the layers of the Laa-Formation like a loaf of ancient, sedimentary bread. The sand-dominated strata split apart along their subtle, parallel planes, revealing alternating seams of silt and fine clay. Some layers broke in blocky, almost modular segments, as if the earth itself had pressed pause and composed the terrain like a careful architect. I pressed a handful of the siltier material between my palms, and it held together, forming a perfect, malleable sphere, cool and slightly tacky - a fragile memory of the quiet waters that once carried it.

Above this gentle slope, fragments of the Mailberg-Formation rested, tumbled from their original bed onto the lower ground. In my hand, a piece of biogenic limestone bore the imprint of countless tiny shells, a chaotic but ordered mosaic of life long past. Each detail suggested the rhythm of sedimentation, an intricate ledger of storms, currents, and calm interludes.

Elsewhere, a thin “stone skin” - a casting of latex - swung on a wind-whipped branch above the Ernstbrunn-Formation, catching the light and revealing the resilience of the underlying rock. Seeing the massive, solid blocks of Ernstbrunn limestone in situ, I felt a rare, quiet satisfaction: there is a permanence in these formations, even as the softer layers continue their slow, pliable dance with gravity and wind.

Research RELIQUIE WEIN4 - Spurensicherung Laa. Project by nagl～wintersberger, Wein/4-Festival Niederösterreich 2026. Opening June 2026, Kunsthaus Laa.

*Note: These field notes are part of an art-based research practice, informed by geology but written as poetic, interpretive observations rather than scientific documentation.