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Guillem S. Arquer (1994) uses his installations and interventions to respond to sore spots in our society’s infrastructure. His research focuses on finding better ways to interact with our ‘more-than-human earth’. Most of his work is site-specific, holistic, and cyclical, and every single part of the project matters: from the first conversations with the curator to the season in which it takes place.
Especially for Prospects, Arquer created a composting toilet for the public to use. Made from materials like reclaimed wood, this toilet facilitates the separate collection of urine and faeces with the aim of producing compost and other fertilizing agents – a concept the artist has been researching for quite some time now.
This intervention was prompted by the ambiguous feeling Arquer has about large-scale events like Prospects and Art Rotterdam, as these leave substantial carbon footprints. In only a short period of time they draw in huge numbers of people, the majority of whom eat, drink, and use the toilet on location. Furthermore, in the Netherlands toilets are usually flushed with drinking water. As a result of all this, a serious ecological and social problem is concentrated in one place during the run of the exhibition.
By participating in Prospects, Arquer has seized the opportunity to show us that things can also be done differently. A hundred years ago composting human excrements – also referred to as night soil – was still common practice in Europe. Today, the most important thing keeping us from using human waste is the taboo surrounding it. Arquer: ‘My work is pointing in a direction that is not so far in the future at all.’ Is an art fair compostable?
Text: Milo Vermeire
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)