Decom is a portrait of a decommissioning yard, the place where oil and gas platforms come to die. The huge structures are lifted from the sea and are broken apart, recycled and re-used on land. The film is devoid of any people; the machines have taken over to clean up the scraps of man.

The scrapyard has its own flow, the film has the same rhythm, it is very slow and then all of a sudden there is a burst of violence. You also see this cycle at sea, when an oil or gas field reaches the end of production. Operators stimulate the field through fracking, it means the pressure drops, a violent explosion occurs and the oil flows back up, then they repeat the process.

The film oscillates between very tranquil wide shots, that introduce this otherworldliness, close ups that show the violence and the machine-perspective where the viewer becomes part of the violence.

Decom
2021
Duration: 14’56” (loop)
Format: 4K / 16:9 Colour

Credits
Concept, direction & production: Tanja Engelberts
Camera: Marcel IJzerman, Tanja Engelberts
Edit: Rento van Drunen, Tanja Engelberts
Colour grading: Marcel IJzerman
Sound design: Rento van Drunen, Andreas Kühne
Audio mix: Andreas Kühne

Special thanks to:
All the workers at Sagro Decommissioning Vlissingen
Rijksakademie van Beeldende kunsten
Gregoriaans Koor Utrecht

Photographs: Sander van Wettum