V12 Laraki by Eric van Hove is an incredibly detailed sculpture of a Mercedes V12 engine made from 53 different materials.

Made possible by a Cda Projects Grant, the sculpture represents an imagined dynamic between German technology and North African ingenuity.

Over nine months, each individual constituent part of a dismantled Mercedes V12 engine was sent to one of thirty five master craftsmen from various regions of Morocco who recreated them in different locally sourced materials before the engine was reassembled.

What materials, you ask?

…white cedar wood, high Atlas red cedar wood, walnut wood, lemon wood, orange wood, ebony wood of Macassar, mahogany wood, thuya wood, Moroccan beech wood, pink apricot wood, mother of pearl, yellow copper, nickel plated copper, red copper, forged iron, recycled aluminum, nickel silver, silver, tin, cow bone, goat bone, malachite of Midelt, agate, green onyx, tigers eye, Taroudant stone, sand stone, red marble of Agadir, black marble of Ouarzazate, white marble of Béni Mellal, pink granite of Tafraoute, goatskin, cowskin, lambskin, resin, cow horn, rams horn, ammonite fossils of the Paleozoic from Erfoud, Ourika clay, geometric terra cotta with vitreous enamel (zellige), green enamel of Tamgrout, paint, cotton, argan oil, cork, henna, and rumex.

TLDR: It’s like that episode of Futurama where Bender remakes himself in wood.

colossal