atlas of ovens — clémentine vaultier

Atlas of ovens

How and what do we fire, with whom do we share the resulting warmth ? With Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers, we research how oven infrastructures can transform not only matter, but our relationships to communities and territories.

with the financial support of the Flemish gouvernment

( in construction )

The Atlas of ovens is an artistic research on heat practices through studying and using the infrastructures that contain and guide them. Starting from the idea that heat is as much a physical phenomenon as a social one, we explore how ovens function not only as containers of physical energy but also as relational infrastructures; more than mere technical shells guiding energy transformation processes, ovens radiate towards communities and can produce new forms of social relations.

In this research, the intangible of social practices becomes matter to work with by encountering firing contexts and transforming materials. We wish to gather around, discuss and speculate in order to circulate knowledge and experiences of heat and energy, rethinking how we can face current challenges together and generating new relationships that support warm(ing) practices.

Fire, Smoke and Dust (photo: Michiel de Cleene)

The Atlas of Ovens intends to document, understand and play with diverse forms, functions, interactions, ressources, governances and rituals of heat infrastructures. The fragment "Fire, smoke and dust" focusses on visual material related to the production and conduction of heat and smoke. The collection on the wall is a starting point for discussions and additions, and for a future program radiating out from the building: a tour "from chimney to chimney" in Ghent and a reading-room on relational infrastructures (in collaboration with Jubilee).