Rare Earths – 17 Fragments is an artistic intervention by Philine Rinnert in collaboration with the Netzwerk Naturwissen at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.
The 17 rare earth elements elude our imagination. Despite their current geopolitical significance, their properties as well as the circumstances surrounding their extraction remain largely invisible.
From 5–11 May 2026, Philine Rinnert will open a temporary installation on the grounds of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. In collaboration with the Netzwerk Naturwissen, she creates a space of resonance for the 17 rare earth elements: a place situated between art, science and social discourse.
The starting point is the claim of a Rare Earth Museum in Baotou, northern China, in the world’s largest mining region. Officially, it tells the story of the global rare earths industry. But what is made visible – and what remains hidden? Rare Earths – 17 Fragments brings this question to the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The intervention is not an exhibition of ready-made answers, but a tectonic landscape of sound, light and material, and a place of questions.
For the realization of the 17 Fragments, Philine Rinnert invites to engage in an artistic dialogue: In collaboration with Daniel Heer, she is developing an installation out of traces, fragments and frequencies. Together with the performer Sichi Li, she is exploring Eastern and Western concepts of landscape on an expanding text surface. In a concert with percussionist Sabrina Ma, the fragility of sound and material is made audible across 17 songs.
Opening on 5 May 2026, 6.30 pm, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Panel discussion followed by a concert
https://atlasnaturwissen.de/de/aktuelles/podiumsdiskussion-zu-seltenen-erden
(registration required)
The installation is open daily from 2 pm to 6 pm.
We collect guests from the main entrance every hour and half-hour.
Full program: https://atlasnaturwissen.de/de/aktuelles/seltene-erden-17-bruchstuecke
The project was curated by Julia Diekämper and Carolin Glahe (Netzwerk Naturwissen, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin).
Sabrina Ma (percussion), Sichi Li (performance), Daniel Heer (artistic collaboration)
Interviews with Simone Ehrenberg-Silies, Manuel Lapp, Franziska Lederer, Andreas Pietsch and Sebastian Tappe. Voice-over Berit Stumpf.
With the kind support of Netzwerk Naturwissen (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin), Sächsischen Landesamts für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie and Goethe Institut
Special thanks to Basic09 for designing the new website tracingtheground.org as an archive and documentation of the ongoing artistic research,