Metaplasis

Abstract

Soil extraction results in different material qualities. Some products, like coal, are affiliated with industry and pollution. Others, such as marble, equal to perpetual wealth and aesthetic. In the region of West Macedonia, in the North of Greece, those qualities coexist in the form of mines and quarries, creating a material network. With starting point the difference between marble and coal, the research investigates extraction practices as a multilevel topic, an ever-growing field where artificial and natural landscape blends. In the possibility of extraction sites closure, questions emerges in regards for the impact in city, environment and humanity sites towards a future transition. Those sites wound create a new archaeology, signs of an era of Anthropocene and a wounded nature.

Hence research circulates around three themes. First it examines the Hinterlands as a system of operations carrying industrial production, following by the sites of extraction and the narratives around them, in pursuit of the spirit of place. The third aspect is a cognitive examination of the human position into those practices. A placement of human through craft proposes a rethinking of materiality and nature as active agents. This affiliation with non-human entities underlines a transition of culture into a caring state, creating an ecosystem sympathy. Goal is to find answers about the recovery of post-mining territories, the revival of this inert anthropogenic environment.