Hunting the Tarasque. Fotodok NL 2022 residency

Fibre Excellence Provence, a pulp mill located in Tarascon, France, has for decades been considered the biggest polluter of the Rhône by the Regional Water Agency. The site has been the subject of further controversy for years. In 2011, a report by the Minister of Ecology highlighted mercury pollution in the plant’s soil, with possible repercussions on the water table. Studies in 2016 and 2017 have linked the company’s operation to high rates of AOX (absorbable organic halogen), suspended matter (SM; 4,000 t estimated in 2016), phosphorus (66 t), chlorine (104 t), heavy metals (3 t in 2016), and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). In 2018, Air PACA reported high levels of PM-10 in the air around the plant, even though it is located in a rural area: these levels were comparable to those in cities in the region. The particular effluents of the plant, often described to smell of rotten eggs or sulfur, are known throughout the region — a permanent reminder of the pollution the plant generates. While some residents have „grown accustomed to the smell,“ many others are deeply concerned by the impact of the plant on their health and the environment. In recent years, residents have reported respiratory problems, headaches, they attribute to the plant’s emissions. Despite these concerns, Fibre Excellence has long been a significant employer in the region; the plant hosts 250 jobs, generating — according to the city council — around seven million euros per year for the local economy. Local officials, including the current mayor of Tarascon, have defended the plant and downplayed the risks posed by its emissions. The evidence, however, suggests that the concerns of local residents are wellfounded. In 2016, residents began to notice black dust on their homes and in their gardens. Video footage from local farmers documented a „rain“ of black dust falling from the plant’s chimney, posing a serious threat to the health of those living nearby. Fibre Excellence has a broader history of environmental violations. The plant has been classified as a SEVESO site, indicating that it poses a significant risk to the environment and public health. But despite successive promises and commitments, and with the help of an increasingly sophisticated PR machine, the plant has continued to request extensions to the timeline by which it must comply with legal expectations. It is clear that Fibre Excellence has put profits ahead of the health and safety of the local community and the environment. The plant’s emissions pose a clear threat to public health and the environment in the Pays d’Arles, and the fact that the local authorities emphasize the profits and employment capacity of the area at the expense of public health and the environment is deeply concerning. Another disturbing revelation is the link between Paper Excellence, the parent company of Fibre Excellence, and the world’s most controversial pulp and paper producer, APP (Asian Pulp and Paper), owned by the father of Paper Excellence’s owner. Based in Indonesia, APP is responsible for large-scale forest fires and deforestation, as well as human rights abuses such as the forced displacement of local communities in Indonesia. Non-governmental organizations in the region have reported the violent intimidation, torture, and disappearance of local activists who have fought to oppose APP’s criminal activities. In a rational world, Fibre Excellence would be implicated in these criminal acts by proxy, but to those who defend Fibre Excellence and its economic significance, these atrocities seem to pose few ethical concerns. When it comes to environmental violence and its effects on health, biodiversity, and the economy, Fibre Excellence is a flagship example of negligence and political failure — not only in the region but in France as a whole. This negligence has accumulated like pollution, layer upon layer over time; a criminal negligence that puts economic interests and political image before public health, biodiversity, and the living. In the near future, we will once again realize the madness and criminal irresponsibility of political inaction on environmental issues, but as ever, the damage will have already been done. Too late to turn back, none of today’s elected officials will be there to take responsibility for their inaction. Those who remain will devise new pseudo-ecological speeches, promising the necessary minimum for the maintenance of their political status, completely disconnected from reality and the unprecedented urgency of the events we will be left to face.

Work

The work consist in 4 pieces: The wind wall, The water wall, the greenwashing wall, and the corporate wall that includes 2 videos

Interview Claire Simonin - association Flamant rose du Trebon. Arles 2023 

Protest by XR (Extinction Rebellion Arles) agains Fibre Excellence in Arles in the frame of the exhibition Hunting the Tarasque at Rencontres d’Arles 2023

Exhibition views Rencontres d’Arles 2023