Modular installation, presented in the exhibition I cannot put my finger on it Storage Museum, Düsseldorf, September 27 – November 2, 2025 Curated by Leonore Spemann and Franca E. Zitta

Materials:
Wood, metal, plastic, functional textiles, organic cotton with a functional finish, soil, soil from Jerusalem, sand, plants, hose system, hangtags

Dimensions:
172 × 82 × 45 cm (transport crate)
134 × 59 cm (costume)
29 × 18 / 31 × 21 / 34 × 25 cm (soil bags)

sandbox pilgrimage by Liora Epstein is conceived as a DIY kit. A transport crate holds a planting basin, a drainage system, several soils — among them soil from Jerusalem, bought like any other commodity — and a pilgrim costume. The components follow a defined sequence: the soils are layered, the costume is placed on top, and the crate is tended over several weeks.

The costume is made from organic cotton with a functional finish. Unlike the synthetic functional textiles that carry Epstein’s other works, this one is built to disappear: in contact with microorganisms in the soil it decomposes over roughly eight weeks. Epstein designs the costumes, drafts the patterns, and sews them herself. The first, catholic pilgrim I, opens a series from which each presentation can choose.

Plants can be freely selected and integrated into the system, allowing a specific biotope to emerge.

Each presentation can activate the work or leave the kit unopened. The crate circulates between institutions; labels accumulate on its lid, making its routes legible as a record of transit.

sandbox pilgrimage is a functional proposition. It shifts art into a controlled, time-based system in which preservation and dissolution are interwoven.

The sandbox as a format of care Video documentation, ongoing since March 2026

Materials:
Functional textiles, organic cotton with a functional finish, wooden crate, miniature plants, soil, sand

Dimensions:
72 × 36 × 27 cm (transport crate)

Realized with the support of Büro für Produktbeschwerung and Eco-Care Recycling Solutions GmbH

eidolon — Greek for a phantom, the image of something no longer there — transfers the structure of sandbox pilgrimage into a closed, domestic format. Where the original is conceived as a room installation, the process here takes place within a private space.

Since March 2026 the decomposition inside the crate has been filmed continuously. What the camera keeps is what the soil takes away. The footage forms the material for a later installation.

Image 1-5 Installation view sandbox pilgrimage, Storage Museum Düsseldorf, 2025
Image 6-7 eidolon, 2025-, in the artist’s home, Cologne, 2025
Photos by Felix Adam

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn