Magma

The installation MAGMA takes Salzgitter as its starting point: a city whose history and present are shaped by ore, the steel industry, heat, and the material reality of industrial production. The title refers not only to geological processes but also to a state of pressure: to heat, compression, and movement beneath the surface.

In MAGMA, Patricia Lambertus condenses these tensions into a pictorial space of pent-up energy. What initially appears to be a staged scene—framed by curtains, structured by a black and white floor—tips over into a field of smoke, embers, and industrial atmosphere.

The installation consists of a large-scale wall piece made of digital collage and two freestanding contour figures. It combines motifs of production, labor, and material flow with an almost archaic visual language. Elements reminiscent of steel production and physical labor meet a glowing zone of fire, mass, and movement. Figures in protective, anonymizing clothing appear less as individuals than as part of a system of observation, security, and control.

At the same time, historical and pop-cultural imagery permeates the scene. It appears like dragons, guardians, or mythical counterforces, without coalescing into a clear narrative. This shifts the image from the documentary to the symbolic: industry is not only interpreted as a site of technical production, but also as a stage for power, risk, protection, and transformation.

Magma moves between surface and depth, between order and dissolution, between technological promise and elemental unrest. The work does not depict the moment of explosion, but rather the state preceding it: a present under pressure.