EXTRACTION

Name: EXTRACTION
Brand: Sun Archive
Price: 65.0 EUR
Availability: InStock

Michał Łuczak

€65,00 EUR

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"I was born, raised, and continue to live in Upper Silesia, a region of southern Poland where hard coal has been mined for over 200 years. Near my former home, a mine extracts coal from a depth of more than 1,000 meters. A second mine was shuttered a few years ago, after 135 years of operation.

My former house is still visibly crooked, although the inhabitants no longer feel the slant. Outside, the sidewalk sinks into the ground. This process—the result of mining operations hollowing out the earth beneath us—will continue long after the last mine has been sealed.

Across the street is a spoil tip: a heap of mining waste overgrown with pioneer plants. Eventually, someone will haul it away as raw material for road construction, and the pile will be gone. In winter, you can see the baleful air we breathe. Unfortunately, I did contribute to this myself, for my crooked house had a coal-fired furnace in the basement, which burns what is rosily branded “eco-pea” coal.

Since 1989, when communism collapsed in Poland, Upper Silesia has undergone constant transformation. The majority of the region’s mines have been shuttered because the deposits are exhausted or the seams are too deep to be profitable. The Polish government recently announced that, by 2049, there will be no more coal mines operating in the country.

Extraction is a record of the multilevel experience of living in the shadow of a mine, and a visual representation of mining’s impact on landscape, architecture, the air, and humans." - Michał Łuczak