Heading Towards Dystopia

© Max Brugger - Clearance of Hambacher Forst 2018. A demonstrator looks at the last still occupied tree house in Hambacher Forst. © Max Brugger - A piece of lignite as a display object at the "Skywalk" lookout point at the Garzweiler open pit mine, 2019. © Max Brugger - Image from the Heading Towards Dystopia photography project View all images ↓
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  • Dates
    2018 - 2019
  • Author
  • Locations Germany, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Aachen
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One of the oldest mixed forests in Europe between Aachen and Cologne, the Hambacher Forst, has been cleared by the energy company RWE since 1978 in order to convert the lignite underneath into electricity. Not only the forest has to make way for coal-fired power generation, but also entire villages and their inhabitants. Since 2012, the forest has been occupied by climate activists and since then the small remaining piece gets a meaning that goes beyond the last hectares. In 2018, the RWE corporation and politicians close to them tried to evict the squatters from the forest on flimsy grounds. A conflict broke out that could not have been more complex.

Aside from documenting the protests in Hambacher Forst, the work is outlining various positions in the conflict, that is a symptom of a fundamental future issue. Between the presence of the society and its uncertain future, it is creating an image space, that is shifting within dystopia and hope.

Loaded with emotional strength, Hambacher Forst grew to a symbol of international climate protection. The discourse about power, future, past, justice and injustice, climate and the fate of RWE workers, forest occupants and local residents leaves marks of a fight that introduces various questions.

© Max Brugger - Clearance of Hambacher Forst 2018. A demonstrator looks at the last still occupied tree house in Hambacher Forst.
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Clearance of Hambacher Forst 2018. A demonstrator looks at the last still occupied tree house in Hambacher Forst.

© Max Brugger - A piece of lignite as a display object at the "Skywalk" lookout point at the Garzweiler open pit mine, 2019.
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A piece of lignite as a display object at the "Skywalk" lookout point at the Garzweiler open pit mine, 2019.

© Max Brugger - Image from the Heading Towards Dystopia photography project
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A pastor consecrates St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners, at a workers union (IGBCE) demonstration in front of the state parliament in Düsseldorf, 2018.

© Max Brugger - Garzweiler open pit mine, Jüchen, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
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Garzweiler open pit mine, Jüchen, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

© Max Brugger - Garzweiler open pit mine, Jüchen, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
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Garzweiler open pit mine, Jüchen, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

© Max Brugger - Image from the Heading Towards Dystopia photography project
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Paul, a member of the Jüchen Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), drives past the Garzweiler open pit mine every evening after work and observes the increasing destruction of nature.

© Max Brugger - Image from the Heading Towards Dystopia photography project
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Two police officers of a special unit rope down from a crane to an occupied tree house in Hambacher Forst. Hundreds of police officers were deployed during the eviction. Hambacher Forst 2018.

© Max Brugger - Image from the Heading Towards Dystopia photography project
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A former resident of the village "Manheim" visits for the last time her parents' house, which will be demolished next. Manheim, 2018.

© Max Brugger - Image from the Heading Towards Dystopia photography project
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A new building in the newly developed village of Borschemich-Neu (new). The inhabitants had to leave their old village because of the mining of brown coal. The real Borschemich no longer exists.

© Max Brugger - Clouds of smoke rise from the Neurath lignite-fired power plant in Grevenbroich, 2019.
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Clouds of smoke rise from the Neurath lignite-fired power plant in Grevenbroich, 2019.

Heading Towards Dystopia by Max Brugger

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