An abandoned gas field in the Lutte led to a search for the mining history of Twente, a rural area in the east of the Netherlands.

Traces of salt and gas production are connected to wastewater injections from oil extraction wells in Schoonebeek.

Slow processes have been set in motion in these places; glacial movement formed this landscape; oil, gas, salt extraction have set in motion developments of which the consequences only manifest themselves many years later.

Engelberts went looking for the traces that the fossil industry has left behind in the Twente landscape by visiting specific locations, doing archival research and conducting discussions with various stakeholders, including residents of the area and geologists.

The result can be seen in the museum: an installation in which the constant extraction of fossils fuels, a sense of geological time and domestic traditions of the region are connected.

The exhibition leads with a poem:

Exploration

All these meters of
soil,
sand,
salt,
clay,
halite,
anhydrite,
porous rock,
pressured gas,
black stripes of coals,
orange iron tinted layers,
oil,

all stacked in wooden boxes,
shelfed in a warehouse.

violence
energy
power

Millions of years in the palm of your hand,
a palm closing,
crushing,

soft sand trickling on the floor.

Special thanks to:

Roelie Seinen, de Zandstrooiboerderij Schoonebeek
Frank van Ruitenbeek, Universiteit Twente
Arjan Dijkstra, Universiteit Twente

Mine
4 channel video installation with drill and poem.

Ja-knikker - Pump jack
Duration: 12’00” (loop) –
Format: 1080P/ 16:9 / Colour

Credits:
Concept, direction & production: Tanja Engelberts
Camera: Tanja Engelberts
Edit: Rento van Drunen
Audio: Marcel Imthorn

Salt mine
Duration: 12’00” (loop)
Format: 1080P/ 16:9 / Colour

Credits:
Concept, direction & production: Tanja Engelberts
Camera: Tanja Engelberts
Edit: Rento van Drunen
Audio: Marcel Imthorn

Glaciaal tapijt – Glacial carpet
Duration: 12’00” (loop)
Format: 1080P/ 16:9 / Colour

Credits:
Concept, direction & production: Tanja Engelberts
Camera: Marcel IJzerman
Edit: Rento van Drunen
Audio: Marcel Imthorn

4000 meters naar beneden - 4000 meters down
Duration: 60’00” (loop)
Format: 1080P/ 16:9 / Colour

Credits:
Image: Image of a drill core of De Lutte field, 1986. © Central Kernhuisgeological service of the Netherlands
Concept, direction & production: Tanja Engelberts
Motion graphic design: Rento van Drunen
Audio: Marcel Imthorn

Photographs by Lotte Stekelenburg