Sludge
by Krzysztof Szewczyk
portfolio special mention call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2021', 2021
Category: Nature, Environment and Perspectives
In my work I’m interested in hidden mechanisms of landscape transformations driven by flow of materials determined by the logic of industrial society and fossil-fuel capitalism.
In this project, I am focusing on a meadow, a small area of land, located on the outskirts of two cities Jaworzno and Mysłowice that are part of the industrial region of Upper Silesian agglomeration in Poland. Situated between the highway and the power plant, until the 1960s this area was used as a sand mine that supplied sand to nearby coal mines. The sand was used there to fill empty pits left over from mined coal. In the second half of the 1960s when the sand mine was closed, groundwater filled the abandoned excavation and the lake was created. The artificial lake was a place of recreation and has survived in the memory of local community members to this day. In the second half of the seventies, the lake was covered with ash and waste from the nearby power plant. Currently, the area has been partially reclaimed and the traces of the lake are practically invisible, gradually being taken over and blurred by nature.