This residency was part of the three-year research strand “DeTox- Clean it up!” where Rejmyre Art Lab, contributes to the ongoing investigation led by Finspångs kommun, around the remediation of the toxic waste behind Reijmyre Glass Factory. The artists met with an archeologist, representatives from Finspångs kommun, the local Historical Society and Byarådet and invited their fellow artists into their research through afternoon workshops. After the residency and a year of investigation each artist presented a site specific installation in Rejmyre as a response to the situation.

The philosophical proposition of Detox is that ‘waste’ is ‘valuable material’. Engaging artists in a clean-up process allows us to tap into this latent value. In order to ‘clean it up’, we need to take responsibility not just for its safe disposal but to account for its potential as a resource that allows us to consider who we were, who we are and who might be becoming.

For hundreds of years, the Reijmyre Glasbruk has produced glass objects and sold the ‘finished products’ while keeping some of the leftovers in piles behind the factory. At first the piles were clearly separate from the surrounding landscape but with time they merged with and became the landscape. Through this multi-year project we will engage a group of regional and international artists in ‘researching’ this situation, i.e. the waste that is slated to be ‘cleaned up’.