Team Commons Lab bouwt mee aan een ‘gemeen’ toilet op teamtweedaagse in Nomad City, Hasselt. 2023.
Gemene kaka
Van toiletsymfonieën tot compostdromen: een hilarische, euh sorry historische, verkenning van menselijke excretie als potentieel gemeengoed! We duiken diep in de diepten van latrines en ons doorspoelverleden en vragen ons af: is onze 'kaka' meer dan alleen maar een onderwerp waar we wat over gniffelen of ons over schamen? We ontlasten iedere dag, maar willen liefst zo weinig mogelijk weten over die ‘last’? Wie neemt de last van je over en zouden we die misschien samen kunnen dragen? De pot op met taboes! We gaan terug tot in de middeleeuwen en kijken hoe gemeen de kaka toen was. Ontdek samen met ons of 'gemene kaka' een schat aan mogelijkheden herbergt.
We brengen deze workshop/presentatie tijdens de ‘The Shitty City’, een is artistiek en levend onderzoeksproject door Nomad City, Domesticity, and The School Hasselt. Meer over dit drie weken durende project hieronder:
The Shitty City is an artistic, living research project initiated by Nomad City, Domesticity, and The School Hasselt. Over the course of three weeks, we aim to transform a site in Kuringen into an experimental village where architects, artists, designers, and permaculturists from various perspectives will experiment within the triptych of Making, Digesting, and Relieving. Through workshops, lectures, interventions, performances, and eating installations, we seek to provide participants with a new perspective that allows them to appreciate once again their own body, mind, and residue.
Click here to join the project.
The first week, we want to use to set up facilities necessary for everyday life, such as a mobile kitchen, compost toilets, small houses, etc.
During the second week, we will construct The Shitty Pavilion, a wooden structure serving two purposes. On the one hand, it will be used in the third week as the central place for our project, where presentations, performances, music, dance, lectures, etc., will take place. On the other hand, this is the location where we will empty our compost toilets.
In this way, we literally place this 'human residue' at the center of our project and (literally once again) it forms the foundation for all other activities. What we perceive as 'waste' is, in reality, a very valuable resource. By composting our residues, we not only save precious drinking water but also manage to keep harmful hormones, processed foods, and medicinal components out of our drinking water, breaking them down into a high-quality product suitable for various vegetable gardens.
How do you mix compost with culture?
Can we rethink our rusted habits?
What kind of pavilion is suitable for a wide range of disciplines?
In the third week, we activate The Shitty Pavilion and the surrounding site. Each day is shaped according to the triptych of Making, Digesting, and Excreting. This means that every day, there will be a workshop, lecture, performance, intervention, eating installation, etc., exploring one of these three elements by researchers, artists, designers, etc., from different disciplines. Visitors are welcome to freely participate in all these activities. During this week, we aim to connect people and encourage them to question their own everyday habits.
What do we still make entirely by ourselves? How do we make time to digest the busyness around us? Can we transform our bodies into an energy supplier?
The last week is utilized to dismantle and clean up almost all the facilities. The mobile houses are moved on foot to the Nomad City settlement. The mobile kitchen and tools are transported by a moving truck to the co-workspace FAX. The pavilion, now filled with the valuable compost from all visitors, remains standing on the location for 2 years. This allows the composting process to peacefully complete, resulting in high-quality compost soil after 2 years. We consider this pavilion as a residue of The Shitty City, a gift for the residents of Kuringen. While most festivals leave behind a lot of waste, with this project, we hope to reconsider this human 'waste' and encourage the residents of Kuringen to use it to plant new seeds for beautiful ideas to grow in the future.