What happens when the industry that has shaped a community and everyday life disappears? What remains after factories close? The towns of the Zasavje region were strongly shaped by industrialisation. At the centre of this research is Trbovlje, a town whose economy relied on heavy industrial production and mining. Everyday experience, the landscape, values of work, and forms of community were shaped by the values, economy, and working conditions of industrial production.

Within the framework of BIO 29 Experimental Practices, the production group consisting of Tatjana Kotnik, Gaja Pegan Nahtigal, and Liza Sočan places the women’s factory Mehanika at the centre of their research.  They explore what it means to live in post-industrial reality: what happens to the abandoned industrial landscape, which forms of life remain possible, and how industry continues to be felt in everyday life. What forms of knowledge and ways of knowing, memories, habits, and values continue to be carried and transformed into the present context?

Their research follows women’s work in the factory and work within the community. How are practices of resourcefulness, repair, reuse, gathering, and food preparation — practices of resilience, living, and caring for the community that emerged within the industrial context — carried forward and transformed today? What has remained, and what has been transformed under new conditions of life and work?

Tatjana, Gaja and Liza approach local materials — clay, tableware, and food (its gathering, preparation, and cooking) — as well as knowledge and memories through a cooking workshop centred on dishes prepared with and from ingredients found within the (post-)industrial landscape. Preparing and sharing food opens up a space for gathering, care, conversation, intergenerational solidarity and knowledge exchange as well as imaginaries of new possibilities.

We invite you to a foraging and culinary exploration of the former Mehanika factory in Trbovlje, taking place on Saturday, 17 October, from 2 to 5 pm. 

We will meet at 2 pm in front of the entrance to Mehanika (Trg revolucije 23, 1420 Trbovlje, the former Ropotarn'ca), from where we will set off on a foraging walk through the surroundings of the former women’s factory.

The event will conclude with a shared feast, prepared, among other things, with inspiration from Zasavje’s culinary heritage and using foraged wild plants, and served on ceramics made from locally gathered wild clay.