Tender and Toxic Tales explores potential scenarios emerging with the disappearance of a segment of society in a mountain town. Three tales unfold in the voids left by its departure, unravelling the social and architectural repercussions of its absence. The stories bear witness to the use of the landscape (which holds a history of silver and gravel mining) and its consequences, whilst being interrupted by a choir that speaks in tongues both ancient and new, murmuring fragments of forgotten tales and offering glimpses of alternative perspectives.
One day, all those who have always stayed disappear—and with them, entrenched thoughts and ingrained habits. And as they leave so much space and so many things behind for those who return (often originally just visiting), they create a network of shared goods and common grounds, re-establishing old commons which are still visible in today’s urban structure.
One day, all the children disappear, and a city thus deprived of its future becomes a city of fortresses, and with everything that is found, higher and higher fences are built.
One day, everyone who is building or wants to build a new house disappears. As a result, those who remain claim the spaces that were already there and unused.
Toponyms (field names) (see also: The signs are collapsing, and no longer certain) anchor the stories within the same topographical landscape and reveal the varying effects of the remaining/evolving mental landscape. Dialect words complement the languages of the voices in the chorus, which consists of stones, winds, words, and weather.
Originally a work consisting of postcards and letters, and performed as a reading (while walking across a map drawn on the floor)—the ideas took shape in a book and were published by dpr Barcelona, resulting from the LINA (European Architecture Platform) Writing Award 2023.
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Below: Bookmark/Postcard designed by Jan Egbers and Goy Tung
