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Urban horse soil action

The project investigated waste management, play, communality and re-introduction of animal power, with the intervention of two working horses, Sarah and Dalton, who joined us perform a service for social and ecological sustainability in the urban environment.
In a residence at Astrid Noacks atelier in Rådmansgade, Outer Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Kultivator built a common tombola-compost in the backyard of the artspace.
The compost can work as a meeting point for people in the backyard, but also to be a destination for school children from the area that can leave organic waste to it, and study how an organic circuit works. Symbolically, the compost becomes an image of seemingly useless scrap from many households together is broken down and converted into fine soil that gives rise to new life.
To introduce compost to a lot of people and open up for discussion around it, Kultivator ran a campaign to collect green waste by handing out buckets, and then collect them with the help of the two horses pulling a carriage through the neighborhood of Yttre Nörrebro, Copenhagen.
Anyone who wanted could also join her- or himself for parts of the travel. The origin of the idea comes from the second world war-time collection of kitchen waste by horse and buggy in European cities.
At that time, the public was called on to contribute to the common good in times of great need.
In our time and place, the immediate crisis of climate change and soil destruction is less visible, but not less serious. The day of gathering and slowly driving round the area to finally stop at the compost and start it, serves as an accessible and friendly opening to discuss and engage around composting and possible horse re-introduction in the city.
The compost will now digest its first portion of organic waste, and the soil will be used in the
installation of a future roof top garden in the backyard. Sarah and Dalton are back in their
countryside, but not unwilling to come back and work the urban again…

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With thanks to the support of Københavns Kommunes Billedkunstudvalg, Funchs Fond and  Konstnärsnämnden