2. Der Forschungsstand

Bork shows objets trouvés from the forest: branches, bark and other tree parts that are criss-crossed with beetle tracks. The aim of collecting and documenting them is to decipher the fictitious language of Bork. The project is an artistic exploration of the human (mis)understanding of nature and the simultaneous desire to understand everything.
Of the signs collected for the first exhibition at the Lucerne Central and University Library, 144 branch writings will be analysed in a decoding phase. The collection and selection focussed on signs in the sapwood of thin branches, most of which were collected in forest areas where the trees had died and been cut down following storms and/or bark beetle infestation.

Of the signs collected for the first exhibition at the Lucerne Central and University Library, 144 branch inscriptions are being analysed in a decoding phase. The collection and selection focussed on signs in the sapwood of thin branches, most of which were collected in forest areas where the trees had died and been cut down after storms and/or bark beetle infestation.
Many of the beetle tracks are reminiscent of signs, runes, hieroglyphs, written stories of mythical creatures, mysterious spells. Nicole Brugger traces concise signs and shapes, compares them, tries to find patterns and repetitions in order to learn to understand the language of the beetles. Even if it is clear that it is not possible to decipher these fictitious writing languages, it remains the fictitious goal of the project. Humans fail because of their need to understand everything. At the same time, the search for art and graphics in nature and the endless collection of seemingly worthless objects, to which meaning in a human sense is only attributed through context, remains.

Two species are strongly represented in the first Bork decoding: the Anthaxia quadripunctata, a beetle of the jewel beetle family, and the Molorchus minor from the longhorn beetle family. The beetles belong to the group of deadwood beetles - the group of beetles that are tied to wood in their way of life and cannot survive without it. They use the wood or the fungi it contains as a food source, the wood of old trees is their only habitat or they feed on other deadwood insects. They belong to the forests like the trees, and these and their wood are essential for their survival. Deadwood beetles are indispensable for the forest.