In March 2025, reaserch residency of Joshua Merchan Rodriguez in view of the group exhibition Layer of Wildness

The Bureau de Troc Polymérique (B.T.P.) [Office of Polymeric Trade] collects technofossils along the Ill River: residues of the Anthropocene, remnants of an obsolete consumerist system. They are then placed on a piece of furniture that resembles a homemade gold panning device, where they will be bartered by a B.T.P. official—performed by Joshua Merchan Rodriguez. Selected with equal care, only a few objects have been transmuted into gold. The scale of value of these objects is short-circuited: is it their composition that gives them worth, or the time spent tracing their forgotten uses? Further on, a copper carcass lies stranded. Its iridescent surface bears witness to the passage of fire, awakening the dormant colors within the material. Guided by his philosophical quest, the official continues his search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.