Soil Archives
year:
2025
In southern Luxembourg, soils constitute an archive for the region’s wealth, layering temporal stratas that connect the present with historical extractive industries such as coal production and steel manufacturing. Underneath the surface, the grounds blur the limits between human actions and the composition of the Earth. From the movements of polluted dirt to the economic repurpose of waste, Soil Archives investigates our relationship with what lies underground, imagining alternative narratives that transcend a purely economical valorization towards what could be defined as Thick Commons.
As an in-situ research endeavor, the project involves encounters with specialists in excavation – waste managers, construction companies, geologists – as well as soil revitalization – ecologists, researchers, politicians – to explore different understandings of our relationship with digging. When grounds are not only considered a material resource, they become a cosmopolitical tool to question the meaning of inhabiting the territories around us as well as the non-human dynamics that shape them.
location:
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourgteam:
Markus Miessen, César Reyes Nájerayear:
2025
commissioner:
University of LuxembourgIn southern Luxembourg, soils constitute an archive for the region’s wealth, layering temporal stratas that connect the present with historical extractive industries such as coal production and steel manufacturing. Underneath the surface, the grounds blur the limits between human actions and the composition of the Earth. From the movements of polluted dirt to the economic repurpose of waste, Soil Archives investigates our relationship with what lies underground, imagining alternative narratives that transcend a purely economical valorization towards what could be defined as Thick Commons.
As an in-situ research endeavor, the project involves encounters with specialists in excavation – waste managers, construction companies, geologists – as well as soil revitalization – ecologists, researchers, politicians – to explore different understandings of our relationship with digging. When grounds are not only considered a material resource, they become a cosmopolitical tool to question the meaning of inhabiting the territories around us as well as the non-human dynamics that shape them.
