For the city of Genk Mats Horbach and Anne Ligtenberg have created future scenario’s in keeping with the traditions of Genk's industry and especially its fish farm culture. The playful scenarios are produced on an assembly line.

The scenarios demonstrate the possibilities surrounding Genk’s rich history of inventiveness and how production is used to create new industries, whilst including existing elements of the area. We would like to show a future in which Genk doesn’t wait on a new industry to move into the area, but in which Genk takes on a pro-active approach to create new industries themselves.

The inspiration came from Genk’s inventive environmental history. In the Middle Ages the people of Genk build fish ponds in the Maten to grow fish for consumption to provide enough food for the people in the area. Nowadays, even the warm water from the cooling towers of the energy plant of Langerlo is used to grow koi carp. As well as inventiveness, production is also intertwined in the DNA of the people of Genk. This production flourished whilst mining and the Ford factory were still present in the city of Genk. We combined these two qualities so Genk can create their own durable industries.

This project was created within the group Aquafarming, initiated by Cultuur Platform Limburg for the exhibition ‘Beyond food and design’. Mentored by the foodcurators, co-mentored by Mats Horbach.

Photography: Kristof Vrancken

copyright 2022 Anne Ligtenberg.

All rights reserved.

Assembling initiatives