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Fragile Landscapes

USA INDUST RI A L SC A RS · GERMANY TERR A NOVA ENERGY PA RK · SWEDEN POST-INDUSTRI A L L A NDSC A PES · GERMANY N A ZI PA RT Y R A LLY GROUNDS NUREMBERG · CANADA GL AC IER SK Y WA LK ROC K Y MOUN TA INS · ITALY ME SSNER MOUN TA IN MUSEUM SOU T H TIROL · NORWAY SK JERVSFOSSEN WATERFA LL · SOUTH AFRIC A C ENTEN A RY T REE C A NOPY WA LK WAY C A PE TOWN · JORDAN REFUGEE C A MP S A ZR AQ A ND Z A ATA RI · JAPAN FUKUSHIM A E XC LUSION ZONE · USA RESILIENCE ST R ATEGY JA M A IC A BAY · OMAN DESER T URBA NISATION · MEXICO MUSEO SUBACUÁTICO DE A RTE C A NCÚN

J Henry Fair

HIDDEN COSTS With his camera, artist J Henry Fair documents the destruction of our planet’s life support systems. His photo series “Industrial Scars” gives us an insight into his work.

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his is a series of photographs of the externalities (dictionary: a side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved) of the modern consumer society. We as consumers reflexively search for the lowest price for the things we buy, without considering the pressure this creates to externalize the true costs of a given purchase. The food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe all depend on an intricate set of delicate systems interacting to create a habitat that makes life on Planet Earth possible.

Each of these systems is complex beyond man’s comprehension, and their interplay even more so.

Humans are an integral part of these systems: The air we breathe is replenished with oxygen produced by plants that “breathe” the carbon-dioxide we exhale. In fact, virtually everything we do affects these complex systems on which we depend for the essential foundations of life. One notable example is the practice of burning ancient hydrocarbons to produce energy, thus releasing the carbon sequestered there and changing the balance in the atmospheric system, which then produces numerous further effects, like altering weather patterns and changing the acidity of the oceans. A useful way to view these side-effects of human activity is to plot the “replacement cost” of the services provided by the systems being damaged by a given activity or product. What will be the cost to clean up a river that is contaminated by the fecal

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waste from the hogs that are factory farmed so that we can have our sausage at the lowest cost?

These pictures are about irony: the irony of beautiful artwork derived from horrible things, the irony of consumers that would rather not know the hidden consequences of the objects of their desire, and the irony that humans can neither individually or collectively foresee the seeds of their demise. My hope is that viewers will look at the pictures and consider the consequences of their purchases.

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hoto right: The tremendous volume of waste produced by aluminum production has a very high ph, often contains significant amounts of heavy metal contamination, and is usually stored in large impoundments near the refinery where it can dry and be spread as dust by the wind.

This is the same toxic red mud that spilled south of Budapest in 2010, flowing into the River Marcal, killing all wildlife there and coming further down to poison the Danube. The material is ph 13, and causes immediate severe chemical burns on living flesh. The more than one million cubic meters of waste could only be completely neutralized by one million cubic meters of strong acid, an ironic thing to pour into a river to save it.

Bauxite waste from aluminum production, Darrow, Louisiana, U.S.A. Flight courtesy of Southwings.

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Jรถrn Frenzel

Elements of Time With the eventual end of large-scale brown coal mining already dawning and the public demanding more transparency, new strategies for dealing with mining landscapes are required. At both the Terra Nova Cultural Landscape and Energy Park near Cologne, Germany, bbz landscape architects in cooperation with Ernst Scharf architect have managed to establish a longterm process that paves the way for such new narratives in an integrated and interconnected way.

Between two worlds: a staircase connects the cultivated landscape with the open-pit coal mine Hambach to the west of Cologne, which is the largest surface mine in Germany.

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Anna Storm

Visible Wounds Post-industrial landscapes are all around us, not least in European city centers, where they often occupy attractive waterfront locations and have become the foci of much urban redevelopment. Researcher Anna Storm looks for traces of historical trajectory in these landscapes, their associated communities, and their rediscovery, re-use, and the new meaning attached to them.

A former Soviet military shipyard in Karosta, Latvia, raises questions about imperial dreams and hard work, lost jobs and vanished communities, as well as about contamination, new economies, and aestheticizing industrial romanticism.

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A scar can be seen as a reminder and trace of a wound. It is organic, and connects physical and mental realities, past and present. For many, a scar spontaneously represents something negative, but a scar is actually much more ambiguous. Think of Mensur scars, veterans’ scars, or Caesarian-section scars – scars that speak of survival, courage, and even resilience. Scars in post-industrial landscapes are characterized by ambiguity. These landscapes simultaneously carry, on the one hand, the welfare of communities, professional pride, and bright hope for the future, and on the other, injured bodies, contaminated natural environments, and evaporating social structures. This ambiguity must be considered and respected when former industrial sites are transformed into new use.

The following five Case Studies (see pages 33 to 35) speak to 20th-century utopian visions of society, of fear and resistance expressed by popular movements, of considerable individual and state investment, and of special relationships between industrial workers and those in power. They are located in Lithuania, Germany, and Sweden/Denmark – more specifically in Malmberget, Barsebäck, Ignalina/Visaginas, Duisburg/Ruhr, and Avesta. The different places represent the industrial branches of iron and steel, mining, and nuclear power, branches that carry both symbolic and economic importance for national independence and identity.

Anna Storm is author of the book “Post Industrial Landscape Scars�, which was short-listed for the 2015 Turku Book Award, a joint prize from the European Society for Environmental History and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. For more information, see page 7.

Case Study 1 explores what it means to live on an unstable mountain in the mining town of Malmberget. This settlement is marked by a huge and continuously growing open pit in its midst, a hole that has literarily swallowed large parts of the former town center. The absence of the town center, in combination with the decisive presence of the hole, is the most important heritage marker in the landscape, a marker that must be better articulated in discussions about the future of Malmberget.

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