For the exhibition ‘Beyond food and design’ Mats Horbach and Anne Ligtenberg created a project focusing on the city of Genk, Belgium and especially on its fish farm culture. The project resulted in a video installation in which future scenario’s are produced on an assembly line.

The playful scenarios show the possibilities when Genk’s rich history of inventiveness and production is used to create new industries with the existing elements in the area. We would like to show a future in which Genk doesn’t wait on a new industry to move into the area, but in which Genk takes on a pro-active approach to create new industries themselves.

The inspiration came from Genk’s inventive history with the environment. Already in the Middle Ages the people of Genk build fish ponds in the Maten to grow fish for consumption to provide enough food for the people in the area. Nowadays, also the warm water from the cooling towers of the energy plant of Langerlo is used to grow koi carp. Next to the inventiveness, production is also intertwined in the DNA of the people of Genk. The production flourished during mining and the Ford factory. We combined these two qualities so Genk can create their own durable industries.

This project was created within the group Aquafarming, initiated by Cultuur Platform Limburg for the exhibition ‘Beyond food and design’. Mentored by the foodcurators, co-mentored by Mats Horbach.

Photography

Kristof Vrancken

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