The Fur Formation is a cliff and earth formation on the coast of the island of Fur in Limfjorden, Denmark. Built by the micro-algae known as diatoms some 55 million years ago, it is also the place where the ashes of Nina Lykke’s lesbian life partner were spread. Contemplating the metamorphoses of her partner’s material remains, which were transformed into ashes and integrated into the algae-sand on the seabed of Limfjorden, Lykke engages in an eco-sensual, queer femme-inine love relationship with the diatoms to rethink death and afterlife as lively processes. Through touching and being touched by these processes of disintegration, aggregation, and transformation, Lykke becomes an eco-advocate for the waters of Limfjorden, and its algae-built seabed and diatomite cliffs. 

This lecture performance comprises Lykke’s poetic readings from her mixed-genre books Vibrant Death (2022) and Feminist Reconfigurings of Alien Encounters (2024), and the speaker’s philosophical reflection on her journey of more-than-human mourning. Lykke highlights the material entanglement between life and death, while suggesting mourning as an embodied practice of (re-)establishing ongoing relations with the deceased in an ecological and philosophical sense.