PLACES OF PRODUCTION, ALUMINIUM

The first aluminum smelter in the Gulf region was inaugurated in 1968 in Bahrain and is today the fourth largest single-site smelter in the world, continuing a history of metal trade that finds its roots in the third millennium BC. The presence of the smelter developed a local economy of aluminum- both formal and informal. Alongside, large locally based international companies producing typical by-products of aluminum, smaller workshops have developed with a focus on a smaller-scale production of aluminum. Today, aluminum stands as one of the strongest expressions of the contemporary evolution of the city, both in its application on the facades of new buildings, and in the re-cladding of older buildings, becoming synonymous with a projected image of modernity. Through an investigation of the gestures in the production processes of aluminum, the installation, using film, photography and a sand-casted aluminum prototype, is an attempt to understand the politics and production cycle of the material and to extract a different potential of its use.