Subtopian Landscape – Environment | Biocide | Dump

Subtopian Landscape Environment | Biocide | Dump

Christel Lundberg (Malmö, Sweden, 1963) Artist|producer|curator, lives and works in Sweden. I studied a Master in Creative Producer at Malmö University and graduated in 2003. Member of Galleri Rostrum in Malmö. Recently curating the international art- and architect project, Konstkiosk, in collaboration with artist Peter Dacke. Works with art in relation to social and environmental sustainability with a focus in historical and contemporary social contexts to capture the fleeting unconscious, often with private things mixed with general understandings of the present. Website: www.christellundberg.se E-mail: info@christellundberg.se

Subtopian landscape This work circles around environment, biocide and dump using the metaphor of marl pits. In my childhood’s landscape I visited a marl pit that was used as a dump and which gave a strong visual impression. Later on, I started to work with marl pits as a concept of what is hidden from our perceptions but still have an impact on the environment. I found out that in Härslöv, a village close to my childhood home, a marl pit was used as a dump for scrap cars among other things. Beyond that, four and a half sacks of the very toxic insecticide Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is suspected to have been dumped in the marl pit. In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson makes an important distinction between insecticide and biocide which also makes a radical distinction between an anthropocentric vs. an ecocentric perspective. Christel Lundberg

What’s a marl pit? ”Marl pit is a large pit dug to pick up marl for spreading in the fields for nutricious reasins and is a form of limestone. The form of a marl pit is often round and 5-8 meters and lined with trees, tall grass and bushes. Marl graves were common during the 19th century and are often placed out in the fields. Modern agriculture has led to a drastic reduction in the number of marl graves, often filled but are important for the conservation of biological diversity.” (Source: Wikipedia, [https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Märgelgrav])

©Christel Lundberg, Bildupphovsrätt 2019, A 3D interpretation of the marl pit in Gantofta

Christel Lundberg, A subtopian animation,Bildupphovsrätt 2019 (video- and soundinstallation)

Vibrations between things, door handles by Wittgenstein Vibrationen zwischen Dingen, Türgriffe von Wittgenstein

Christel Lundberg, Bildupphovsrätt 2019, A subtopian landscape, charcoal drawing,

Christel Lundberg, Bildupphovsrätt 2019, Animation of a shrinking subtopia, charcoal drawing

A marl pit in Carlsro, Gantofta, Sweden. This marl pit is filled and had disappeared in the landscape. foto: Christel Lundberg

Map: ©Riksarkivet, Skånska Rekognoceringskartan 1812-20

[https://sok.riksarkivet.se/Home/?postid=Arkis+30c3c29b-cbdb-479a-b715-9102997bdd90&flik=1&s=Balder]

E 368396

N 6199208

E 370335

N

0

200

400

600 m

400

600 m

N 6197969

Skala 1:7 000, SWEREF 99 TM, RH 2000.

E 368423

N 6199208

E 370362

N

0

200

Skala 1:7 000, SWEREF 99 TM, RH 2000.

N 6197969

September 2009 ”In September 2009 the administration of environmental issues in the municipality of Landskrona received a tip about a filled opencast mine. The mine is located near the village of Härslöv and there are suspicions that hazardous waste have become buried at the site, among other things the banned pesticide DDT. In previous investigations, high levels of DDT have been detected in Råån but the source of the emission is still unknown.” (Hanna Frisk: Märgelgravarna i Härslöv – Historisk utveckling och potential som föroreningskällor, kandidatarbete i Miljövetenskap, vt2020, Lunds Universitet.)

Råån, which is approximately 30 km long and goes from Sireköpinge, through Tågarp, Bälteberga, Vallåkra, Kvistofta, Gantofta to Råå in Helsingborg where it is emptied in Öresund. (Råån, [https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Råån]). As I grew up in Gantofta I have a lot of childhood memories of playing close to Råån and later on riding horses in and around the valley of Råån in Vallåkra. The landscape and environment kept a lot of memories from paths from younger stone age to contemporary laid gravel paths. I still have the trembling feeling of facing another time in an undesigned environment. The suspicous marl pit in Härslöv is today filled but you can still recognize it on the map from 1960 as you can see in the maps to the left marked with a red square.

Maps top left page: ©Lantmäteriet, Härslöv, Landskrona, Sweden, 1960 Maps bottom left page: Map from Lantmäteriets historiska kartarkiv, Härslöv, Landskrona, Sweden, 2021

Christel Lundberg, Bildupphovsrätt 2021, A subtopian landscape, Härslöv, charcoal drawing

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Subtopian Landscape – Environment | Biocide | Dump

Published on Oct 13, 2021

Christel Lundberg

Subtopian landscape This work circles around environment, biocide and dump using the metaphor of marl pits. In my childhood’s landscape I visited a marl pit that was used as a dump and which gave a strong visual impression. Later on, I started to work with marl pits as a concept of what is hidden from our perceptions but still have an impact on the environment. I found out that in Härslöv, a village close to my childhood home, a marl pit was used as a dump for scrap cars among other things. Beyond that, four and a half sacks of the very toxic insecticide Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is suspected to have been dumped in the marl pit. In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson makes an important distinction between insecticide and biocide which also makes a radical distinction between an anthropocentric vs. an ecocentric perspective. Christel Lundberg Christel Lundberg (Malmö, Sweden, 1963) Artist|producer|curator, lives and works in Sweden.