Paper short abstract:

This presentation discusses the ways of reconnecting with the deindustrialized landscape in Kvartsitnyi, a former mining settlement. It focuses on the materiality of deserted industrial infrastructures, as well as the emotional responses or care and concern they provoke in the local community.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation discusses the ways of reconnecting with the deindustrialized landscape in a former mining settlement. It focuses on the materiality of deserted industrial infrastructures, as well as the complex emotional responses they provoke. As a case study, it analyzes the history of Kvartsitnyi, a settlement in Karelia, Northwestern Russia. Kvartsitnyi was built in the 1970s near the newly opened quartzitic sandstone quarry, adjacent to the Indigenous Veps village Shoksha. In the first decades after its construction, Kvartsitnyi was viewed as a modern progressive settlement attracting workers from different parts of the country. However, in the early 2000s, the sandstone quarry went bankrupt and closed, and today's residents of Kvartsitnyi live in a permanent state of uncertainty. The landscape of Kvartsitnyi is commonly viewed as empty and devoid of meaning before mining development started in the area. The quarry's closure resulted in returning to symbolic "nothingness," as Kvartsitnyi and its surroundings lost the mining industry as its core element. The residents of contemporary Kvartsitnyi attempt to reconnect with the settlement in new ways and to find reasons to stay in the area. Decaying construction sites in the center of Kvartsitnyi, have recently been turned into an ethnic theme park promoting the mining history of Indigenous Veps. The presentation discusses how care and concern for the post-industrial landscape are interconnected in contemporary Kvartsitnyi. The research is based on participant observation and interviews conducted in Karelia between 2015 and 2021.