Rotor – Deutschland im Herbst
An exhibition of the Ursula Blickle Foundation
November 9 – December 14, 2008
Mühlweg 18,
D -76703 Kraichtal-UÖ
Germany
www.ursula-blickle-stiftung.de
Rotor is an architecture-based interdisciplinary collective from Brussels that has created a platform to deal with the complex theme of the re-use of industrial waste and its social, economic, and ecological aspects. It explores the current production processes, materials, and decisions that lead to the selection of what is useful and what is not.
Rotor’s project developed for the Ursula Blickle Foundation was preceded by a long research period in which a large number of companies from the Kraichtal region were examined. The project revolves around a series of waste products that have resulted from various production processes and different companies. The installation will not only focus on documenting each production and material context, but it will also present the actual material that usually remains invisible at disposal.
The industrial mass production of goods has contributed significantly to the fact that production processes not only create goods, building supplies, or materials for further processing but also waste, which serves no immediate useful purpose. How to deal with production waste is not only an ecological, political, or economic issue; it also entails ontological aspects. At which point in the value-added processing chain does a material and the state it is in become “surplus” and lose its value? There are many approaches for dealing with leftover production and consumer goods. Particularly in developing regions this has led to the emergence of countless microeconomies that live from waste – especially raw materials – which they collect, sort, and re-use. Another branch of the waste economy doesn’t process this discarded material but concerns itself solely with the storage, trading, and transport of waste.
This is the point of departure for Rotor’s unique course of action. It adheres to neither economic nor ecological viewpoints that strive for a more balanced state of entropy. It seeks instead to regard the forms and materials it finds in companies’ dumpsters as autonomous units that can embark independently on new paths of development and define their own design principles. Not only does Rotor experiment with new materials, analyze the relationship of these with their users, or explore different social needs and ecological problems, it also attempts to understand how dealing with material, its design, and assessment as a medium of communication influences interpersonal interaction.
Curated by
Chus Martínez
Opening
Saturday, November 8, 2008, 7 p.m.
Opening hours
Wed. 2 – 5 p.m., Sun. 2 – 6 p.m.,
and by appointment
