Third Stone, 2025 - Silvia Noronha & Anais-Karenin 

Nakanojo Biennale, Japan, Gunma Prefecture, Nakanojo town.

Developed for the Nakanojo Biennale in Japan, in a region with a long history of iron ore extraction and production, Third Stone explores the temporalities, vitality, and territorial entanglements of iron ore, tracing its transformation through extractive processes that leave enduring scars across landscapes, ecosystems, and communities.

The installation incorporates images captured in the aftermath of the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, one of the most devastating mining-related environmental disasters in history, which occurred in November 2015. Emerging from the toxic mud, these images reveal layers of memory, residue, and material aftermath.

By linking Brazilian mining territories to the global circulation of iron ore, the work exposes the often-invisible infrastructures of extractivism and their entanglement with geopolitical relations involving consumer nations such as Japan. In foregrounding these supply chains, Third Stone invites critical reflection on the ethical and ecological consequences of mining, drawing attention to its impacts on both human and more-than-human worlds.