Waste is ubiquitous. The widespread, thoroughly colonial practice of dumping waste elsewhere and 'disposing' of it is coming up against increasing resistance and also factual limits. Waste does not disappear, it remains or reappears, in increasing quantities and in unexpected (albeit globally very unevenly distributed) ways. The most common disposal technology worldwide is still the dumping of waste in landfills. Landfills are "places of forgetting" (Myra Hird), not only is the material outsourced, but the work with and in the landfills is delegated to a few.

Curator Bettina Knaup reports on her research for a long-term artistic project that deals with waste landscapes and infrastructures.

Dr. Bettina Knaup, freelance curator and author (Berlin), has (co-)curated numerous international festivals, exhibitions and projects. She publishes, teaches and regularly collaborates with artists and curators.

Based on her recently completed PhD performing (as) waste at the Department of Drama, Theatre and Performance at Roehampton University, London, she is currently developing a collaborative project dealing with waste landscapes and infrastructures. She is continuing her collaboration with artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, whose contribution to the exhibition The Great Repair she curated.