Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes |
Mountains have moved.
The Winterslag coal mine is located in the Belgian town of Genk. It was the first of seven coal mines established in the region of Limburg shortly after the discovery of the first hard coal seam in 1901, which led to the start of a coal rush and almost 100 years of deep coal mining in the Kempen Plateau. It is an example of a large-scale and, in geological terms, fast resource extraction and displacement process. The human-led activities related to the extraction and processing of coal have had an enormous impact on the territory, altering geological layers, soils, bodies of water and vegetation in a relatively short period of time compared to the slower sedimentation processes that date back to the Carboniferous period, more than 300 million years ago.
The extraction of coal drastically changed the landscape around Genk. A whole new city was built for the workers, transportation and communication networks were established, rivers were canalised, and entire landscapes were drained and made productive. Mining has not only left underground and above-ground traces but has also structured societies and cultures around its economy. In the 1950s, employment peaked with 44.000 workers in the Limburg region. Many migrants arrived from Italy, Greece, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey and other places, escaping the collapsing postwar economies in their home countries to work for a promising yet hazardous industry. The former non-productive landscape was thereby transformed into an urban one and integrated into a global capitalistic system of resource extraction that nevertheless brought wealth and development to the region and its new inhabitants as well. The “terril”, a giant slag heap, arose then out of the coal processing waste. Today, the artificial mountain stands, together with the factory and the cité, as a silent monument to the earth’s plundering and multigenerational trauma, as well as to the collective work and effort of the mine workers.
Mountains might move again.
Unearthing as a method. Almost two decades after the closure of the Winterslag mine in 1988, the vast complex, consisting of industrial and administrative structures, was converted into a hub for the creative industries, C-mine, an attempt to introduce other types of economies in the area. It brings together a theatre, cinema, gallery spaces, an art school, heritage organisations, and various companies. The question remains, however, of how to handle the site’s legacy.
Coal mines have ceased to operate in the entire Limburg region. However, coal-based energy still amounts to a fifth of Europe’s energy production and is now fueled by the gas shortage and the closing down of nuclear power plants. Historically, the coal economy has had a significant impact on the continent’s wealth and development and the early construction of the European project, which started as the European Coal and Steel Community. More generally, resource extraction is a colonial reality in many other places and a practice to which the construction of our cities is still indebted.
This semester, we propose to unearth. To carefully reveal what might have been overlooked. Our practice could be a way to dig up and lay bare the structures that have contributed to a damaged world in need of rebalancing and repair and the histories that have been neglected along the way, thinking with and beyond extractive capitalism. Like this, we might start moving mountains.
Further, we will review the role of C-Mine as a cultural actor and discover new potentials within it. We will unveil new ecological and cultural potentialities by looking at Winterslag not only as a cultural node but as a landscape, a territory, a settlement, and a community. We might start by being attentive and observing the site’s delicate and intricate networks, not to overlook other potential emerging worlds.
Structure
The studio will focus on developing new readings of the site, which we will approach through four abstract worlds: the house, the field, the tower and the mount, with the guidance of four experts. We will build imaginaries and mythologies around these, which will then be translated into physical artefacts and iconographies. These will be then brought to Genk in the form of a parade, a public celebration. The imaginaries will then be tested against the site in the form of interventions and against each other. Collective activities such as a reading club, which serves as a critical arena for dialogue and debate, and collective lunches will run alongside the studio.
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Lernziele |
Develop an understanding of complex territorial transformation processes and their implications for human and non-human entities.
Engage with a given site through a 1:1 approach. First-person research, which consists of carefully listening to and understanding a set of actors that are relevant to a given ecosystem.
Acquire critical thinking tools and an understanding of current critical discourses concerning issues such as resource extractivism, ecology, public space, gender and postcolonial theory. Develop language and communication tools that allow for precise argumentation and positioning.
Develop design tools and strategies to articulate agency, intervene within the entanglement of urban spaces and relations, and trigger change. Find powerful, clear and adequate means of representing the work through different media. Curate and present the outcome in a meaningful way, so that it acquires an agency of its own.
Contribute to establishing a vivid and stimulating collaborative studio culture. Learn how to take part and communicate in collective debates and discussions. Bring forward ideas, suggestions and inputs to the group. Take responsibility for organising collective studio endeavours, such as the Reading Club, the collective lunches or the Design in Dialogue Sessions.
Work in four dimensions: understand the interplay between space and time and learn to navigate and activate different temporalities. |
