“It’s a land-art work of art. It consists of a 100-by-100-meter plane in the Kuwait desert. That piece of land has been completely crushed by a GPS-controlled excavator. Inside that plane are the wreckage of a road. , which is still there. from the Gulf War, removed, “says Ploeger.

A video of the creation of that work can be seen in the Kuwait pavilion. “You can see the excavator in operation. At the moment the pavilion is not physically open yet, but the work can be viewed online via a special website. “

Joining two parts

Ploeger combines two aspects of the 1990-1991 Gulf War in his work. “The Gulf War is known as the First Space War, because a lot was done with GPS. From invisible airplanes to smart bombs. But there were also things that didn’t fit in this clean, high-tech picture and they barely made it into the picture. news. For example, US troops used bulldozers to bury Iraqi soldiers alive. “

During the ‘first Gulf War’ of 1990-1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait to annex it. In January 1991, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands invaded Iraq and Kuwait to undo that.

The theme of the architecture biennial is: ‘How will we live together?’ “I have done a lot of work on technology and its origins in war technologies. Two years ago I also had an exhibition on that subject in Vlissingen.”

“I met one of the curators of the Paris Biennale. When they decided they wanted to work on that pavilion on the Gulf War that happened thirty years ago, they approached me because my work fit with him.”

‘Our lives seem peaceful, but they are connected by all kinds of conflicts’

Ploeger is interested in the everyday world we live in, in which technologies play an important role. You want to encourage people to think about where they come from and what they mean. “Our life here seems peaceful, but it is connected by all kinds of conflicts. A good example is the Caterpillar excavator, which I have used in my work. Caterpillar also makes armored versions that are used by the Israeli and American military. Everyday technology also linked to the means of war “.