Rock of Spitsbergen
Lara Almárcegui
Rocks of Spitsbergen is a project produced with the intention of going further down and deepening the reflexion on the territory, the past and the origin of “the built”. A nearly impossible project, Rocks of Spitsbergen is an attempt to identify all the rocks of one Artic Island of 39.000 km2.
The list of rocks in Rocks of Spitsbergen refers to the island’s past, when the region was shaped by the collision of tectonic plates, forming mountains, and sediments were deposited, producing rocks. The work comments on the ways the island territory has changed – and been changed – as a result of geological evolution and mining. The island has a long history of mining with many attempts to extract its abundant ores. There have been drilling expeditions in the search for copper, asbestos, zinc ore, iron, gold, lead and phosphates. With estimated coal deposits of some 22 million tons, the area around Longyearbyen has two active mines, and further extraction will start soon. The main aim of the project is therefore to focus on the future of the island. What will happen to the region if its rocks are extracted for minerals. The work offers a vision of the island’s possible destruction through an exploration of its geological origins and future exploitation.
Themes: extraction, transport, infrastructure
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