The Polder Western is a collaborative project between Erika Roux and Pilar Mata Dupont that uses the genre of the Western to unpack various concerns regarding rising sea levels globally. Situated in the Netherlands, a country where the artists have lived for many years, this experiment in narrative and absurdism allows the artists to lead research and investigate personal concerns arising from living in an environmentally vulnerable country facing complex issues such as climate change and its (mis)management. Through text-based research and interviews with multiple people working with and by the water in the Netherlands - sea-level researchers, millers, hydraulic engineers, artists and farmers - they have developed a speculative screenplay for a film, the first outcome of this long-term project, from which they will continue their investigations and production of a body of work.
The screenplay will be developed into a publication launching soon, designed by Rudy Guedj and published by Building Fictions.
The Polder Western is supported by Gemeente Rotterdam, Buitenplaats Brienenoord and Droom en Daad.
The screenplay will be developed into a publication launching soon, designed by Rudy Guedj and published by Building Fictions.
The Polder Western is supported by Gemeente Rotterdam, Buitenplaats Brienenoord and Droom en Daad.
The Climate Scientist Lament is a song written by Roux and Mata Dupont as part of the screenplay Scenes from a Polder Western. It was performed as a looping song by Yanna Pelser and Bergur Anderson during a presentation at the end of their residency at Buitenplaats Brienenoord, on the Brienenoord island in Rotterdam. The song is composed by Bergur Anderson.
Video by Sol Archer.
