Lara Almarcegui: Halted Excavation

What traces of geological, political and social change can be found beneath the city? In 2024, the Netherlands and Flanders will be the joint hosts of the Leipzig Book Fair. On this occasion, the GfZK will realise a site-specific collaboration with the artist Lara Almarcegui, based in Rotterdam.

In this public talk, Almarcegui will present her work. Since the mid-1990s, a time of construction boom and extensive urban renewal in Europe, Almarcegui has engaged with processes of urban transformation. She is particularly interested in conditions that are not usually the focus of attention, such as wastelands. In Leipzig she will explore a building site, turning it into a place where the geological past and the historical transformation of the city can be reflected upon. For the presentation in the exhibition space (13 September 2024 to 12 January 2025), Almarcegui will document and expand her onsite research.

Guest:
Lara Almarcegui, Künstlerin
Dr. habil. Frank W. Junge, Freier Berater Geowissenschaften
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Lentz, Direktor und Vorstand Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL)

Sponsored by the Mondriaan Fund and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, on the occasion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ guest appearance at the Leipzig Book Fair 2024.

Number of participants is limited. If you wish to participate, please register at: welcome@gfzk.de

What traces of geological, political and social change can be found beneath the city? In 2024, the GfZK will realise a site-specific collaboration with the artist Lara Almarcegui, based in Rotterdam. Since the mid-1990s, a time of construction boom and extensive urban renewal in Europe, the artist has engaged with processes of urban transformation.

In Leipzig, Almarcegui will explore a building site. For one day, she will halt construction work at the location where a new building for the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, IfL) is currently being built. Construction work will be stopped at the point when the deepest layers have been reached. Almarcegui will then invite the public to join her in the excavation pit to view the uncovered material and historical layers of the city before they are concealed again. At Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz, a site of transformation, the work deals with the urban change brought about by construction.

For the presentation of the project at the GfZK (13 September, 2024 to 12 January 12, 2025), Almarcegui will create a video work and expand her onsite research.

A collaboration with Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, IfL). Sponsored by the Mondriaan Fund and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Berlin, on the occasion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ guest appearance at the Leipzig Book Fair 2024.

Stefan Rettich, architect, professor for urban planning and author of the book Die Bodenfrage [The Land Issue], and Peter Leonhardt, monument conservator and curator of several exhibitions on the subject of Leipzig’s architectural history, discuss resources, building and questions around the commons with the artist Lara Almarcegui. Using examples from Leipzig, they examine the impact of the construction sector on the climate, environment and society, and explore possibilities for a sustainable transformation of architecture and urban development.

The discussion marks the end of the one-year project Halted Excavation, realised by Almarcegui on behalf of the GfZK in 2024. Since the mid-1990s, a time when the building industry boomed and extensive urban regeneration took place in Europe, the Rotterdam-based artist has been working on processes of urban transformation. She is interested in land, wasteland, building materials and construction sites. In Leipzig, she turned her attention to the construction site of the Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) at Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz. Almarcegui halted the construction work at the point when the deepest layers of the excavation had been reached. In a video installation, she recorded the uncovered material and historical layers of the city before they were buried again.