ATELIER ARTHUR ROGIERS | Keizer Karelstraat 103, 1000 Brussels (BE) |
Thu. 24 JAN. 2019 | 18:00 - 21:30 |
Fri. 25 JAN. 2019 | 18:00 - 21:30 |
A breathtaking helicopter landing drops us smack in the middle of an isolated community of Russian miners in Svalbard. In recent years, the coal industry in this region has seen a dramatic decline, but the state owned company Arktikugol Trust is nonetheless determined to maintain its long-standing geostrategic position. In order to ensure the survival of this former soviet outpost, the miners continue their laborious tasks to be self-sufficient in their power supply. In a land of extremes—while trying to defy the natural laws of the Arctic—they routinely submit to "the machine's hunger for coal". Although Catrysse strays away from explicit statements on the larger political context, the viewer cannot but notice a state of denial. Outpost gradually discloses a series of dark observations with regard to a faltering industrial model that stubbornly seems to be heading for its final phase.
Info: www.initia.be