Join us for a talk by artist Lara Almarcegui, who will guide us through her work at the intersections of contemporary art, urban exploration, and photography. In our present time of widespread urban renewal, the artist invites you to take note of neglected spaces such as vacant lots, unoccupied buildings, former quarries, and structures in the process of being demolished. She questions contemporary cycles of construction and infrastructure development and initiates public conversations about excavation, building materials, demolition, and contemporary ruins. Almarcegui will share the research and creative processes she applies to her projects, installations, and Guides to the Wastelands booklets.

This talk is part of a series of events accompanying the exhibition The Lives of Documents—Photography as Project, which looks at the processes and methodologies of artists and photographers in constructing visual arguments, critiques, research, and observations on our built environment.

As a continuation of her project on the Francon quarry in Saint-Michel—an edition of her Guides to the Wastelands series produced for the exhibition, The Lives of Documents—Photography as Project — Almarcegui also invites you to come to the CCA on 7 October at 2pm to discuss the future of the quarry with her and expert guests.

Lara Almarcegui is a Spanish artist based in Rotterdam. Her artistic practice rexplores the material aspects of territory and urban space. She has worked in different cities for over twenty years, identifying abandoned, unused, transitional, or forgotten sites and examining contemporary transformation processes induced by social, political, and economic change.

This project was partly made possible by the Creative Industries Fund NL.