Dead River by Tanja Engelberts (NL, 1987) shows how the Rhône, a once free-flowing river, has become a technological object. In a video with a poem and ceramic clay reliefs of the riverbanks, Engelberts lets the river speak for itself again. She investigates how to document landscapes that are no longer visible.

With the development of hydroelectricity, the Rhône River changed drastically in post-war France. New canals took over the old river, dikes were built against flooding, the river was slowly dammed in the name of science and technology. With its fast flow and cool temperatures, the Rhône provided an ideal setting for the development of several nuclear power plants and chemical industry sites. The river became a hydraulic object; the boundaries between nature and technology slowly blurred. Inspired by Bruno Latour's concept of the ‘Parliament of Things’, stating that laws and politics should respond to all things and life forms, Tanja Engelberts tried to imagine what it’s like to be a fast-flowing river, slowly filling with Anthropocene-era artifacts over a 600 kilometre stretch. Along its route from the glaciers of Switzerland, to the south of France and ending in the Mediterranean Sea, the river brings all kind of chemicals into the Rhône valley, such as PFAS, radioactive material, plastic waste and pesticides. Besides a meandering movie and a poem, Engelberts made photographs from the perspective of the river itself, focusing on the meeting point of water and riverbank. From the photos, she created ceramic reliefs with clay from the riverbanks of the Rhone. The reliefs have become symbols of the river’s hidden history.