Landscape as Weapon

Once the playgrounds and raw material for the avant-garde, abandoned places and things – decommissioned military sites, post-industrial spaces, contested and forgotten edgelands – are now just as likely to be seen as assets for entrepreneurs or connoisseurs of the authentically worn-out. This is the age of patina, where the material remains of times past – the fields and factories, test sites, back alleys, machines and statues – are coveted, adored, mourned and commemorated, as well as sometimes despised. Through an exploration of a wide range of recent film, photography, art and writing about place, Landscape as Weapon argues that these abandoned sites are a critical arena for debate about the meaning of space and time under late capitalism.