Enforced Amnesia
A large dredger vessel deposited 3,500 cubic meters of sand in the Rijnhaven basin twice a day for a year. The ongoing project will cost the municipality of Rotterdam more than €57,000,000, making it the most expensive city project ever. This sand for this project is extracted from the North Sea, sanctioned by private companies and the state — with very little reflection on the true impact of this process.
Sand, as a material, presents itself as stable and unstable; for this very reason it is an ideal fuel for the development of capital. This hidden extractive process will continue well beyond this particular development project. It happens beyond the coast, below the water — where ecological disturbance remains unseen and forgotten. The investigation into the events unfolding in the Rijnhaven resulted in the development of research through drawing, photographic documentation, material experiments, video, performance and speculative installation. All centered around the cyclical nature of material extraction.
My material research led me to produce a brick made of sand bound with biodegradable materials. This method of binding the sand allowed me to return some of the sand from the beach in Rijnhaven closer to its point of origin. When the brick comes into contact with water it degrades back into its original form.
Inside the boxes I included a call to discuss the environmental impact of the redevelopment — a reply has yet to be recieved.