Doel is a small town trapped between the Antwerp harbour and a nuclear power station. It has a long history of uncertainty; debates and decisions on whether or not the town would be destroyed in favour of the harbour have left their marks on the small town that only has a few citizens left. Currently the decision is that Doel is allowed to remain. However; in order to remake the place in the light of its history and its people; we propose an alternative future for Doel; one that can hopefully do more than just let it be.
There are many themes present in Doel, such as the feeling of uncertainty and the apparent inevitability of change, feelings of loss and the conflict between economic progress and personal history. We want to facilitate the exploration of emotions and ideas around these themes. One way of doing this can be found in Foucault's ideas about discourse. According to Foucault (1984), discourse provides a language, a practice, a way of knowing, and a production of knowledge through meaning. So, both language and practice can give physical objects meaning and hence tell the history of Doel and create the feelings of loss and uncertainty.
To create new meanings in Doel, we want to invite artists to create physical objects while they stay in the village. Certain areas will be marked where they can create and display their art amidst the new and demolished buildings. They will be temporary residents; reflecting the uncertainty and temporality of the area itself and showing this through their art. Through the act of creation, participants become producers of meaning and knowledge. As discourses enable and constrain knowledge production, they allow certain ways of thinking while excluding others (Cheek, 2004). It is up to the artists as temporary residents what they send out as a message, and how the outside world talks about that. This will be a continuous conversation about the meaning of Doel.
However, a conversation needs to be put in to practice through performances in order to become more meaningful (Buizer and Turnhout, 2011). Places are there for people to meet, they are open and not bound. In general, they are an ongoing production. Art can create a dynamic relation between people and the village. We hope that art students and their teachers will be able to visit and create alongside the artists. Visitors and people who are simply curious about Doel will still be welcome in the village; as they can contribute to the place as well.
By using both physical and verbal communication and by creating a place where people come and go we hope that Doel can become its own place again; with its own unique identity that is more than just a trapped little town.
Fenne Oppers, Ghilandy Ramadhan, Joann Smit
References:
Buizer, M., & Turnhout, E. (2011). Text, talk, things, and the subpolitics of performing place. Geoforum, 42(5), 530-538. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.05.004
Cheek, J. (2004) At the margins? Discourse analysis and qualitative research . In: Qualitative Health research,14(8):1140–1150. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304266820
Foucault, M. (1984). The order of discourse. In M. Shapiro (Ed.), Language and politics (pp. 108-138). London: Basil Blackwell
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