Unsettled (2008 – 2021) is a long-term project on change and the environment. It addresses a current topic with global relevance—the series documents the evolution of the Antwerp harbor expansion zone in Belgium. The area is undergoing major transitions through vast industrial expansions and related nature compensation plans imposed by the European Union to balance the industrial growth with ecological areas and protect the hinterland against rising sea levels.
Starting from this local example in Belgium, the UNSETTLED project refers to a global tendency of industrial, economic, and environmental shifts and the challenge of balancing these elements for a sustainable future.
The series shows layered landscapes of the transforming area—either for industrial or compensating nature targets, interior images of abandoned houses in the endangered village of Doel, or portraits of young inhabitants in the area who will need to migrate because of the harbor expansion and nature compensation plans.
The project touches upon notions such as progress, change, ecology, climate change, sustainability, rising sea levels, global trade, the value of land, migration, and the connection between identity and our surroundings.
Project website: www.unsettled.eu
