Buckthorn Slag Heap

Author: Diana Lelonek

Information on the label:

“In order to extract lignite, the deposit shall be drained by suctioning deep water. This results in a depression funnel and, in effect, dries out the terrain surrounding the opencast pit. An example is the riparian forest in the immediate vicinity of the Drzewce slagheap. The wetland became completely dry and the forest died. Nowadays, one can walk between the protruding dry tree trunks, which until recently formed these wet riparian forests. The sea buckthorn, from which this juice was made, was collected in the opencast areas of Eastern Wielkopolska. Sea buckthorn is one of the few plants well received in this area.”

Bucksthorn Slagheap stand at the exhibition The Most Beautiful Disaster, CCA Kronika, Bytom

Degraded area around the Jóźwin 2b opencast pit, Kleczew municipality

Sunflowers, which were reborn even though the top layer of humus has already been removed – the first stage of the opencast. Probably earlier there was a field of sunflowers here.

Ashes storage site after burning brown coal from the Pątnów Power Plant.

Such landfills are flooded with water, which becomes intensely turquoise in colour. Turquoise lakes are completely biologically dead.

Buckthorn Slagheap, first harvest, September 2018

Beach in Przyjezierze.

Desiccating Ostrowskie Lake. Due to the fast drying process, the lake has now been divided into two separate reservoirs.

Buckthorn Slagheap stand at the exhibition The Most Beautiful Disaster, CCA Kronika, Bytom

Promotional video of Buckthorn Slagheap showing the Jóźwin slag heap.

Promotional stand of Buckthorn Slagheap / A peach tree inmunicipat the municipality of Kleczew

Temporary mobile promotional stand of Buckthorn Slagheap, unofficially smuggled to the COP24 conference area in Katowice, where there was a possibility of tasting Greater Poland sea buckthorn and other preserves / Peach from Izabelin village, displaced by the mine

Buckthorn Slagheap stand at the exhibition The Most Beautiful Disaster, CCA Kronika, Bytom

Preserves made from pears and peaches harvested in the village of Izabelin, which was displaced by the mines. The village no longer exists.

A house in Isabelin that no longer exists. View from a walk on google street view

House in Izabelin

A house in Isabelin that no longer exists. View from a walk on google street view

House in Izabelin

Information on the label using this photo:

“During the construction of an open-pit mine, the mine relocates entire villages. According to the law, residents are obliged to leave their homes for which they receive compensation. However, they cannot decide to stay on the spot. This is connected not only with a permanent change in the function of a given area: removing the village with its infrastructure and surrounding fields, but also with breaking social ties and destroying the local community. The peaches from which the product was made were taken away from the village of Izabelin (Kleczew municipality), which had been displaced by the mine, in the last weeks of its existence.”

Buckthorn Slagheap stand at the regional tradition fair in the open-air district museum in Konin

Temporary mobile Buckthorn Slagheap stand during COP24 in Katowice

Initially, the stand was to function in the Good Climate Pavilion on the market square, but as a sign of protest I decided to close it after it turned out that workshops for children organized by the State Forests and Jastrzębska Coal Company were held there. Then the stand moved to Rondo Sztuki and the Climate Hub. Buckthorn Slagheap also took part in several discussion panels, including a panel organized by proVeg international.