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Amazon is a River

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Designed in collaboration with Thomas Randal-Page and Kim Gubbini, this project is to feature as part of the Waterwalls Arts Festival on the river of Esch-sur-Sûre, in Luxembourg. It is the first cultural festival based on the principles of the circular economy and our installation seeks to critique the doctrine of infinite growth using an abstract physical model of cyclical economic of flows, advocating social and ecological well-being over corporate profits, over-production and excess consumption.

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The Fulfilment Centre is a playful kinetic water clock in picturesque northern Luxemburg slowly revealing a darker message about the enormity of wealth inequality.

 

Nestled deep in Europe's foremost corporate tax haven, “The Fulfilment Centre” carefully measures out water, cup by cup. In this context one cup of water represents one euro and each cup is filled 34 times per hour. This is Luxembourg’s average wage, the highest in Europe.

The Fulfilment Centre is a playful kinetic water clock in picturesque northern Luxemburg slowly revealing a darker message about the enormity of wealth inequality.

 

Nestled deep in Europe's foremost corporate tax haven, “The Fulfilment Centre” carefully measures out water, cup by cup. In this context one cup of water represents one euro and each cup is filled 34 times per hour. This is Luxembourg’s average wage, the highest in Europe.

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Just out of sight around the bend of the steep valley, lies the huge Esch-sur-Sûre Dam holding back the largest body of water in the country. At the same ratio of one cup equals one euro, this 12 mile long reservoir holds Jeff Bezos’  €180+ billion personal fortune!

 

At a more metaphoric level the river represents the natural flow of things, connected to a wider system, and uncontrolled by human intervention… wild like the Amazon. Amazon now has a new connotation far from its wild namesake. It refers to a man made system, one of commodification of resources, distribution of goods, monopolising of commerce and the vast creation and amassing of wealth.

The dam serves a very practical function in the context of Luxembourg, securing drinking water and producing green electricity, but it is a massive imposition on what was a wild river. Fish no longer migrate upstream, the river no longer meanders and erodes at its own will. What has been lost and what has been gained in this taming?

 

Uncontacted indigenous communities still exist in the amazon basin, living a symbiotic relationship with nature, following the fundamental principles of a circular economy. They take what they need from their environment and produce only organic waste that is reabsorbed and reused by the natural environment.. What is wealth to them?

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This installation is a cyclical system, taking and giving back. It asks the viewer to question the source of Luxembourg's wealth and confronts a global system which concentrates such unprecedented riches in the hands of so few men.

 

In direct counterpoint to Amazon’s buy now - think later approach, this temporary architectural installation has been conceived of as an assemblage of objects at various midpoints in their life cycle. From second-hand sanitaryware saved from landfill, to construction products hired for the project's duration, every element and detail of the project has been considered to eliminate waste and facilitate disassembly and reuse.

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The design process was a meditation on material circularity. It involved a constant questioning of sourcing norms, the antithesis of Amazon’s monopolisation of easy consumption with all their hidden environmental and ethical costs.

 

The ‘Fulfilment centre’ is the first manifestation of a wider and ongoing research project entitled, “Amazon is a River” which delves deeper into the wider systemic issues caused by the unsustainable dominance of Amazon and its work practices. 

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The installation is directly connected to the Sûre river, pumping its water to the top of our tower, quantifying it as it falls through the system, before returning it to the stream, taking and giving back in equal measure.

 

Through our participatory and interactive installation, visitors are introduced to a simple scale that equates one glass of water to one euro, but the piece also exists in the wider context of the Upper Sûre Lake. 

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Finally, visitors understand that using this metric, the water held behind the Esch-sur-Sûre Barrage is equivalent to the staggering fortune amassed by the world’s wealthiest individual.

Water is piped by a simple electronic pump from the river to the top of the tower. Using the metric of one cup of water to one Euro, each of the 16 hoppers releases water at the rate of the Luxemburg minimum wage in to the top of the water clock system. A series of tiers of found containers then fill and empty as the water pours down the system. 

Some vessels fill and tip like the Japanese Shishi-odoshi (deer scarers) and others reach a certain level and then automatically empty by siphonic action like the Pythagorean Cup also known as the “greedy cup”. Each action triggers a sound together creating an gentle abstract soundscape over the dripping and splashing of the water’s decent.
 

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