FLACC
WORKPLACE FOR VISUAL ARTISTS
In 2010, Wapke Feenstra will explore the Limburg landscape by following the movements of land-related products.
22 February - Waterschei - Terril visit
Gathering stones, students of the Antwerp Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten are strolling over the terril. Looking for inspiration. Jean Vuegen acts as guide and tells about the structure and recent history of these hills. He proposes climbing the bare, scattered terril which is less high and steep. Today there is hardly a breath of wind at the bottom, but at the top a cold gale is blowing. Visibility is good. Jean points at the mine shafts and church spires in the distance. Even the ski run on the Landgraaf terril is reflected for a while. But the mine of Eisden is invisible here, the ground level having sunk 8 yards. The forecast showers drift towards Waterschei, the sky is turning grey again.
23 February - Bichterweerd - Geology near the Maas
With Michiel Dusar I am having a look at some large boulders, leftovers from the gravel extraction. He sees ages of pressing, wearing, melting and shifting in the stones and can tell they are from the Ardennes. Michiel works for the Belgian Geological Service and as I intend to make animated pictures of the moving earth I am watching closely. I am trying to work out how the gravel has come here. And that is a challenge, as we are talking about millions of years... Hard to imagine. However, there are some things to go by as well. I notice that the current is stronger here as the river bed is hollow. I see that bricks made from the locally won loam are brown. "There is a lot of humus in the loam as there were forests here in the past", Michiel tells me. I am drawing trees and soil profiles in my sketch book.
1 March - Sibelco - Landscape in Maatheide
"Don't go close to the edge", Cathy Blervacq warns. She is Head of Communications at Sibelco's and knows this landscape. Where sand suckers De Reiger and De Riebos are operating, the ridge around the large, deep pool is getting unstable. Therefore this area is not open to the public. The two sand suckers steadily suck up the sand, which disappears through a large pipe into the plant. The water is rising and the pool is expanding. They work up to a depth of 60 yards. This pool will extend in the direction of Farmfrites, but for safety reasons they stop at a distance of at least 60 yards from the access road. The Maatheide sand will be used in the glass industry. Near the exit there is a train moving a little every now and then in order to put a new wagon under the loading point. There´s a constant coming and going of trucks. And on the canal a barge is loading silica sand too.
3 March - Riemst - Loading of Markies
There is a Globetrotter in the marlstone cave. It is a French truck sent by McCain. And McCain wants Markies. That is why Christof Haesen is loading these potatoes onto the conveyer and sorting belts that run towards the truck. Undersize potatoes are removed and put onto a separate conveyer. The truck drives off with around 30 tonnes of contract potatoes. Christof starts clearing the storage place straightaway, gathering stray potatoes and stacking the air shafts of the ventilation system that have come free. Ventilation inside a heap of potatoes is crucial: they need to stay dry. Under these conditions Markies can be stored from harvest time (September-October) until June.
