Stories of Post-extractive Feminist Futures

The spatial practices of mining areas have been under-researched using inclusive methods. The shrinking town of Eisenerz lies at the foot of the Erzberg mountain, Austrias largest and best- known site of iron ore extraction. The post-industrial town is experiencing a rural exodus, which disproportionately affects women. Mining is predominantly talked about in heroic narratives, while counter-narratives of repair, care, reproduction and maintenance are mostly omitted. Within this complex field, the project focuses on intersectional feminist perspectives to collect post-extractive stories, which will broaden the perception of mining areas and strengthen the focus on the diversity of narratives for future perspectives. We ask this: Which practices contribute to the continuance of the community? Through this question, the project aims to show and discuss the multiple and diverse actors and their spatial practices of repair, maintenance and care. Citizen scientists will be involved at three levels: 1. Citizens of the community will collect stories, research private archives, report and communicate. Processes of mutual learning will take place in workshops and meetings. 2. In workshops citizens will create imaginations of future stories of a liveable community; and, with the help of artists, these will be illustrated and included in discussions and public representation. 3. Based on collaborative science and a welcoming affirmative approach, citizens will be part of decisions relating to their contributions and their representation. Through feminist strategies of making visible, bringing together, and anticipating and activating futures, and also with the help of the artistic tools of knowledge production, this project will show practices and how they perform constant reparative counter-practices amid extraction. An ethical, intersectional framework of feminist citizen science will revive the margins of how we know about exploitation. The aim is to deliver a complex, yet profound, image of a polyphonic Anthropocene that allows dynamic assemblages to be imagined after exploitation. Project lead Dr Karin Reisinger (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) will be supported by regional artists and communicators; and four international cooperation partners will strengthen the project through discussions and exchange: Dr Katarina Bonnevier, Linnaeus University (Sweden); Professor Hélène Frichot, University of Melbourne; Professor Anke Strüver, University of Graz; and Dr Kim Trogal, University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury.

The mining town of Eisenerz lies at the foot of the Erzberg mountain, Austria's largest and best-known site of iron-ore extraction. The post-industrial town is experiencing a rural exodus that affects women in particular. Mining is predominantly narrated in male, heroic narratives, while counter-narratives of repair, care, reproduction and maintenance are mostly overlooked. Within this complex field, the project explored intersectional perspectives on an area of exhaustion and extractivism, collecting a variety of post-extractive stories to broaden the perception of mining areas. We asked: Which practices contribute to the continuance of the community? To ensure diversity of contributions, we worked with various local groups: the Olle zoum association, which runs a communitarian space for gatherings and second-hand shopping, Jugend am Werk (a local workshop for people with dis_abilities), Volkshilfe (the local retirement home), the youth centre, the Vereinsgemeinschaft (a local umbrella association), and the Museum im alten Rathaus (the local museum). The project is indebted to their knowledge and hospitality, to a complex local structure of voluntary work, and to the support of the local municipality. Local citizens collected, shared and located stories of practices, even researching private archives and organizing gatherings. Processes of mutual learning took place in meetings and shared activities, and through stories being transformed into drawings by artist Roswitha Weingrill. The 108 resulting drawings could be viewed from March to May 2024 in an exhibition called "City of Care: Geschichten vom Erhalten, Pflegen und Sorgen aus Eisenerz" ("Stories of Maintenance and Care from Eisenerz") at the Gallery FreiRaum in Eisenerz. Jugend am Werk was instrumental in the exhibition opening. After the exhibition, the original drawings were handed back to the contributing citizens. However, the drawings can be accessed in an online collection at the repository of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and - together with spatial information - in a virtual and interactive map at https://www.mountains-of-ore.org/en/pef/map/ Based on collaborative science and an affirmative and inclusive approach, citizens were involved in decision-making on many levels. The collected knowledge contributed to creating imaginations of future stories of a liveable community. These imaginaries were deepened and articulated in a Future Workshop, which concluded the exhibition of the drawings in May 2024. Via strategies of making visible, bringing together, and anticipating and activating futures, and with the help of artistic tools of knowledge production, this project presents practices as constant reparative counter-practices amid extraction. An ethical, intersectional framework of feminist citizen science revived the margins of how we know about environmental exploitation and delivered a complex, yet profound, image of a polyphonic Anthropocene that allows dynamic assemblages and gatherings to be imagined after exploitation.