Collective Disaster

Collective Disaster is an open, transnational and multidisciplinary community that has met in random places, through coincidence or work, party, hospitality. A meta-collective, if you want. They speak strange english and come from various places and backgrounds. They share ideas, visions, interests, experiences and ambitions. Physically they can be far, but their ‘bodies’ are not only made of flesh and bones. Collective Disaster is interested in changing reality. ‘If we are just a few we have a little influence but when we are with more we can have a bigger run’. That is why they are looking for people from different disciplines that can elaborate on bigger issues with them, like economists and sociologists. Their ambition is time consuming and non-commercial. Why ‘Disaster’? By losing support from a greater system, people tend to each other for help. Thus, networks of solidarity and a culture of sharing appears. Collective Disaster was born out of an interest in exploring possibilities of collaboration and in working on ways out of disasters.

Exemples of works :

In Miracle Mountain, Collective Disaster combines knowledge from alchemy, geobiology, composting and healing practices. Visitors and neighbors can enjoy a calm but social space while dipping their feet in hot water with healing qualities. The installation is composed of two volumes, a positive and a negative, a male and a female, a yin and a yan. The positive one is a giant compost pile. The negative is a water reservoir set into the tissue of the earth. Cooled water from the reservoir flows through a coiled tube inside the heap and, due to heat released by the composting process, hot water flows back into the reservoir as if it were a natural hot spring. Fermentation is one of the alchemical processes. Miracle Mountain is an alchemical device, whose layout takes the shape of the symbol ‘the philosopher’s stone’. It seeks a balance,a ‘divine marriage’ between opposites; here, hot and cold water.

Temple of Holy Shit (Usine du Trésor Noir) is a public compost toilet and terra-preta sanitation system, whose purpose is to convert the organic and bodily waste produced by the park and its visitors into a rich type of soil (terra-preta) for the gardens in and around the area. This transdisciplinary project drew connections between the milieus of architecture, public art, science and community-based practice. Since the installation relies entirely on its usability, the project is only fully realised via public activation. Apart from a compost toilet and terra-preta production facility, the design includes a playground with slides and a stage for performances by members of the community. Collective Disaster also developed a program over the course of the summer co-ordinating the ‘Usine’ as a social space, where different local social groups met and engaged in activities together.