were excavated from a fenced area situated in the North-East of Rotterdam - a wasteland covered with a deep layer of concrete slab. The last usage of the land was by a private factory called the Rotterdamse Beton Centrale. They had a secret patented recipe that they mixed together with waste and toxic waste materials to create concrete.
The 80 cm long core samples function as contemporary artifacts that narrate the hidden and complex geology and history of this piece of land and human excistence. It brings pieces of glass, plastic, metal, wood, bones as well as other unidentified substances to the surface. They further tell an essential part of the story of Rotterdam - a city that witnessed massive destruction, re-construction, and like many cities, the extensive urbanization process. Like the natural sedimentary rocks, these artificially produced samples explore a knowledge that is normally visually absent from the eyes of the local inhabitants.
The work was produced in the frame of a recent ‘If Paradise Is Half As Nice’ (Ipihan) project that took place in August
2020, when the group settled on the concrete slab for 6 weeks and lived there for exploration and research purposes.