Warmbed is a "furnishing" intervention in the C-mine landscape - a public platform, inspired by Chinese “kang beds” and the Russian “Pechka Stove”, the platform can be heated up from inside, emanating warmth and an aura of hospitality. The daybed is heated through a “batch rocket stove”, a DIY stove burning wood at high temperatures, heating the mass of bricks which diffuse their heat slowly to the bodies taking place on them. The material used for the platform takes its roots in local history; Winterslag used to operate a brickyard, where the residue of the mining process was transformed into building material for the mining cités. Still today, the black-charred bricks, known as Winterslagse Duivels clad facades all over the neighbourhood. Through the support of passionate experts and amateurs, Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers have developped a parallel brick-macking technique that uses so-called “minestone”present in the ground and officially considered “waste material”. Bricks were hand-formed, air-dried and fired on-site in a temporary field kiln, a low-tech oven that was assembled and disassembled with every backing cycle. Every step in this slow production process took place within the public space of the landscape. Baking cycles became opportunities to experiment, exchange knowledge and engange in conversations about the local landscape with visitors, neighbours, fellow artists and passers-by.
Clémentine Vaultier (Invited expert)
Nick Monsieur (Invited expert)
Milan Gillard (Participant)
Tania WIllekens (Participant)
Jonathan De Maeyer (Invited expert)
C-mine (Host)
Jester (Funder)
Gesture: Warmbed