Hi Laura, some years ago we interviewed you about your previous project and publication ‘Land’. Could you tell us about this project once more? And why a focus on ‘landscape’?

'Land' is a visual investigation on how human interventions transform and fragment our landscape. The landscape is often linked to a standstill, stasis. But nothing could be further from the truth. I'm interested in the movement of our surroundings and its results. The photographs of the project have a very graphic feel to them enhancing the contrast between fluid lines and angular creations. For a long time, I thought about the landscape as a kind of backdrop for people's lives. An almost insignificant setting that we remodel and shape to our desire. Over time, my view changed. What we transform into the landscape will eventually shape us in return: it's a constant dialogue. 

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Belgium

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Belgium

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Belgium

Both 'Land' and 'Strata' have no people in the photographs, but I feel that a landfill (the focus of my project 'Strata') is the most human place I have ever experienced. It's the absolute culmination of our lifestyle, our consumerist habits, and of the impotence of dealing with the results of fast progress.

Your latest piece of work named 'Strata' is a long-term project and spreads over some European countries. What’s it all about?

'Strata' investigates the effects of waste management and specifically landfill on the landscape. When we talk about waste, we are used to the story skipping from A to Z: from PET bottle to fleece sweater or from candy wrapper to the street bin. Thinking beyond this point is rare and as you would soon find out: highly complex. For many decades (and in some countries up until now), burying waste into the ground, also known as landfilling, has been the most common and cheap method to get rid of it. When a landfill site reaches its maximum capacity, it’s covered with protective layers, soil and plants to integrate this newly constructed landscape in the surrounding area.

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', The Netherlands

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', The Netherlands

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', The Netherlands

Following legislation on landfill from 1999, the EU has established that the landfilling of municipal waste has to be gradually limited to 10% by 2035. This practice should thus become a marginal phenomenon giving priority to the new waste hierarchy which encourages the prevention and re-use of materials. However, the hills and holes resulting from years of landfilling will, identifiable or not, shape the landscape for good.

To understand how different EU countries are evolving towards this target I've visited landfills in different countries such as Romania, Belgium and Portugal.

Your working method has changed drastically. I mean, with ‘Land’ you chose to wander through a landscape and photograph things intuitively. Now your approach is different for ‘STRATA’ and it has become a documentary piece. Why the change? And also why have you chosen this subject?

The change in the working method was not at all deliberate. As you said, I went from wandering into the mountains to a never-ending administrative juggle in order to obtain permits to shoot the locations I wanted. Over the last 3 years, I've visited more than 100 landfills in different European countries. It's been crazy: a landfill road trip is not the average weekend getaway. Aesthetically, the photographs from my first landfill visit were still in line with the work I made for Land, but soon I found out that the thematic was so broad it had to be a project on its own.

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Romania

I was first drawn to the subject of landfill because it made me doubt my surroundings; I was no longer sure a hill was a hill or a former landfill reintegrated into the landscape. I needed to understand what these places meant to me.

Did 'Strata' emerge from a personal feeling, ideology, …? From my point of view, it’s like a formal protest; meant to sensitize countries and their population. How would you describe your personal point of view?

The project has evolved as a learning process fruit of personal environmental concern. Is landfill a horrible aberration of the landscape? Sure it is. Am I against landfill? This question became too simplistic as the project evolved. Landfills are part of the large mechanism of waste management which again is the result of our ever-growing consumerism –rooted in financial prosperity– and the creation of indestructible debris. Burying trash doesn't make it disappear, only time can tell if these places are an opportunity or a disaster for the future.

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Spain

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Spain

© Laura Van Severen from the series 'Strata', Spain

Strata is a quiet protest that pretends to show those places that are usually hidden. Only after acknowledging its existence, a learning process can unfold.

You told me that 'Strata' is finished. But, what will be the eventual form of this project?

'Strata' has found a forced finish due to the travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic. However, I'm still working on a few interviews to further complement the work and integrate diverse views on this practice. I have no final form in mind. Different from other projects I've worked on I feel the message is now more important than a concrete outcome or presentation. If the message wants to be shared, I will find a way for the work to be presented in an adequate way: publication, talk, exhibition, web page, ...

Installation view of Laura Van Severen's exhibition 'The arrangement of unwanted features', Espai d’Art Moritz, Barcelona, Spain, 2019

Installation view of Laura Van Severen's exhibition 'The arrangement of unwanted features', Espai d’Art Moritz, Barcelona, Spain, 2019

Installation view of Laura Van Severen's exhibition 'The arrangement of unwanted features', Espai d’Art Moritz, Barcelona, Spain, 2019

Installation view of Laura Van Severen's exhibition 'The arrangement of unwanted features', Espai d’Art Moritz, Barcelona, Spain, 2019

Do you already have an eye for new work?

This last year while working on 'Strata' I was craving to photograph in a less restrictive manner with no permits, no time restrictions, and no outside control on what I could photograph and what not. On the other hand, I was also looking for smaller, more personal stories while still focussing on my main interest: the dialogue between the landscape and how humans inhabit it.

Together with writer and journalist Mònica Pagès I'll be working on a project that aims to capture the lives, sensations and anecdotes of the women living in the rural context of a high altitude village located in the Catalan Pyrenees.

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LINKS
Laura Van Severen (personal website)
Interview with Laura Van Severen on her project 'Land' (2015)
European Commission on Landfill
Urbanautica Belgium