Enough Room for Space (ERforS)
During PeriFeria, ERforS will welcome you in their Head Quarters in Drogenbos and present works relating to On-Trade-Off, initiated by Picha (Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo) and Enough Room for Space in 2018. On-Trade-Off is an ongoing artistic-research project that raises awareness about environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of Lithium, the main raw material needed for the global production of Green Energy. Focusing on this one chemical element (Li3), allows the project to zoom in on particular social, ecological, economic and political phenomena that characterize the production processes that are currently in full development.
These phenomena show striking similarities with production chains as we have known them since the start of triangular trade in the 16th century: inhumane labor during the exploitation and extraction processes; a perpetuated economic imbalance to maintain economic growth; uninformed end-consumers that are unaware of both the devastating production chain that led to their purchased wholesale goods, as much as their afterlife in the sense of a lacking recycling scheme.
Continuous screening of Avec Le Vent by Raf Custers, 2013 (35 min.). Avec Le Vent is a documentary directed by Raf Custers that was mainly filmed in the mining province of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The film highlights the progress of the mining industry as experienced on a daily basis by the Congolese. While copper and cobalt are extracted from the mines to feed the global economy, the negative effects of the industry are not regulated and the population suffers. A revision of the legal framework (the Mining Code) would make it possible to mitigate the flaws and excesses of the current situation and restrict the interests of the much-solicited investors.
Enough Room for Space (ERforS) is an interdependent art initiative that initiates and coordinates events, residencies, research projects and exhibitions worldwide. ERforS acts as freely as possible, always putting the context and the idea before the medium, challenging the barriers between different disciplines (artistic, scientific or activist). Dialogue is central to the way ERforS has initiated and developed projects since 2005.
ERforS wants to expose, manipulate and invent different modes of being part of this constant changing world. How do we position ourselves, as Homo Sapiens Sapiens amidst all other life on Earth? By working in different cultural contexts worldwide, ERforS tries to generate discussion and engage with emerging social, political and ecological issues, both historic, current and in the future.