Marilen Rauch (b. 1990 DE) is a ceramic and visual artist based in Gothenburg, Sweden. She graduated with a MFA in Ceramic Art from HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design in Gothenburg. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Design and has a background in Ceramic Art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with solo shows at Salt Museum (KR) and Rotor2 Gallery (SE) and Keramikkünstlerhaus (DE). Group exhibitions include Konstepidemin (SE), Grafik Kabinett Backnang (DE), Vent Space (EE), Farmstudio (CZ), European Ceramic Context (DK), Konstnärshuset Stockholm (SE), Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (KR), GIBCA – Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (SE) and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL).

In 2023, she co-founded Tontouristen Kollektiv with Jennifer Forsberg and Anne-Marie Dehon during a research trip to the Westerwald region in Germany, one of Europe’s most significant clay mining regions. Tontouristen became a collective platform for exploring the transformative journey of clay through geology, industry and culture. In 2025 she had the interim position as Artistic Director and facilitator of the international ceramic residency program °CAET at Keramikkünstlerhaus Neumünster (DE). Besides she worked as guest lecturer at EKA – Estonian Art Academy in Tallinn (EE), IKKG – Institute for Ceramic and Glass Art, Koblenz (DE) and University of Applied Sciences in Mainz (DE).

In my artistic practice I work with self-extracted clay, ceramic minerals, field recordings and site-responsive installations. I create dialogues and explorative synergies between landscapes, their materials and the transformations they undergo to become a usable matter. I examine places and landscapes on their material and immaterial properties, focusing mainly on clay and other ceramic related minerals. Through the process of extracting, collecting and processing my own materials, I involve myself with my environment and connect with places. I explore the ephemeral states of landscapes and poetically investigate sites through sensory and material approaches.

In 2020 I began to investigate local earthenware clays around Gothenburg. Thus I started to explore sound as a parallel form of knowledge by recording both the soundscapes of the excavation sites and the sonic traces of clay itself. Over time, my practice extended to industrial clay and kaolin mining regions in Germany and France, leading to the formation of the Tontouristen Kollektiv to explore the transformative journey of clay and its narratives. Visits to mining museums, pits and factories deepened my understanding of the industrial and geopolitical contexts of ceramic materials.

Lately, I have concentrated on feldspar minerals and their post-industrial landscapes. As I work process based and site-specific I am particularly interested in all aspects that belong to what I call ‘ceramic minescapes’: landscapes shaped by the extraction of ceramic raw materials, such as clay and minerals used for glazing. Tim Ingold acknowledges, “To understand materials it is to be able to tell their histories” (Ingold 2012, 434) and, I would add, critically engage with them. I am interested in the ephemeral states of extractive landscapes, exploring their materialand immaterial properties.
My practice investigates how material processes can be documented and remembered beyond the fired ceramic object. By engaging with these resources at their origin, I aim to expand our perception of the environment and the materials that constitute it – the ground we stand on.