Roundtable on art and radioactive waste storage in Belgium
Friday 17 November 2017
Z33 House of Contemporary Art
Zuivelmarkt 33,
3500 Hasselt, Belgium
An illustrated account of the roundtable can be found on the Z33 Research Blog http://z33research.be/2018/02/ele-carpenter-and-pieter-fannes-undergroun...
The Nuclear Culture Roundtables bring together artists, architects, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists along with nuclear agencies, scientists, stakeholders and NGO’s. We start with short presentations that introduce the issues of the Nuclear Anthropocene. These include the problems of creating nuclear waste, the option of geological storage, the difficulty of communicating or marking contaminated sites for future generations, and the question of designing infrastructures for a deep time future. We will consider the larger ethical questions at stake, and focus on the specific situation of nuclear waste management in Belgium. After the introductory presentations, we will invite participants from different areas of expertise to take part in three round table discussions, to which the audience is welcome to contribute.
The Underground/Overground round table included artists participating in the Z33 Nuclear Culture programme, researchers from the Belgian Nuclear Waste Management project, artists from the ANDRA art programme, researchers on MODERN 2020, and a group of young students research concepts of deep time communication working with the Z33 education programme.
Visual Reporting by Pieter Fannes.
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Programme:
10.00 Arrival and Coffee
10.15
Welcome: Ils Huygens, Curator Z33
Introduction: Ele Carpenter
Chair: Jasmine De Bruycker, Z33 Research
10.30-11.30 Presentations: Underground
Regine Debatty, writer, Conceptualizing the subterranean
Jantine Schroeder, SCK-CEN, the Belgian context
Andy Weir, Artist, UK, Deep Decay contagion and Pazugoo
Maarten Vanden Eynde, Artist, Belgium, Uranium Trade
11.30-12.00 Coffee Break
12-13.00 Presentations: Overground
Anne Bergmans, Prof Sociology, Antwerp University, Belgium
Community representatives, Stora and Mona, Belgium
David De Bruijn, Bovenbouw Architects, Belgium
Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead, Artists , UK/Scotland
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-16.00 DRAFT: Roundtable Discussion Groups
Group A: Citizen Science and Participation 21st Century
Chair: Anne Bergmans
Participants: Artists Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead, Bridget Kennedy; David De Bruijn, Ono Archtecture; Jan Rypens, EURIDICE; representatives from Mona and Stora; Sofia Landstrom, Malmo Konstmuseum; Dries Dingenen, PhD Candidate, and Anna- Laura Liebenstund junior researcher, Antwerp University; and people engaged in participatory design, activism and community engagement in scientific projects.
Rapporteur: Ciel Grommen
Group B: Deep time communication through Intergenerational relay
Chair: Jasmine De Bruycker
Participants: Artists Cécile Massart, Dave Griffiths, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Agnes Villette; along with Christophe Depaus, NIRAS/ONDRAF the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Material; Claudia Lastra, Arts Catalyst; Pieter Cools, Post Doc, Antwerp University; and Jean-Noel Dumont ANDRA, the French Agency for radioactive waste storage; Disa Torbjörnsdottir, Communications co-ordinator at Malmo Konst Museum; representatives from Mona and Stora; and people engaged in communicating knowledge over one or two generations.
Rapporteur: Sigrid Eeckhout
Group C: Deep time communication through long term projection
Chair: Robert Williams
Participants: Artists Alice and David Bertizzolo, Alexis Destoop, Andy Weir, Marjolijn Dijkman; along with Maarten Van Geet, NIRAS/ONDRAF; representative from Mona or Stora; Frans Saris, Nuclear Physicist; Axelle Meyermans, PhD Candidate, Antwerp University; and people engaged in communicating knowledge into the deep future.
Rapporteur: Regine Debatty
16.00-16.30 Plenary and close, chaired by Jasmine De Bruycker
16.30-18.00 Time to view the exhibition
18.00 – 20.00 Group Supper, viewing Pieter Fannes visual report.
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On the Saturday morning, Ele Carpenter will give a curators tour of the exhibition 11am - 1pm.