This essay is oriented towards the exploration of specific elements of saltworking in a particular environment in southwestern Slovenia, the Sečovlje Saltworks. This region has been home to salt production for centuries and functions as an ecosystem of cohabitation among humans and more-than-human beings and elements. In recent decades, saltworking has declined drastically, which has led to several irreversible changes in this landscape. 

In this presentation, saltworking is explored in the fields of environmental anthropology, ecoethnography, ecophenomenology and the ethics of listening, where both walking and listening are present as relational practices and as research methods.

With experiencing listening-with and embodying walking-with we will be attempting to imagine the sound of the four elements (water, fire, air and earth) crystallising into salt. 

Maja Bjelica is a Research Associate at the Science and Research Centre Koper’s Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies. She focuses her research on the ethics of listening and explores saltworking in the realm of environmental (post)humanities.

This research and paper presentation is funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) through the research project “Grain of Salt, Crystallising Cohabitation” (J6-50196) and the research programme “Liminal Spaces” (P6-0279).