Mass and Individual Moving
The first action by Mass and Individual Moving (MAIM) is a series of radioactive monuments. In an interview with newspaper De Morgen from 27 December 2000, Raphaël Opstaele says about nuclear waste: 'I assume that it is better to keep close what is dangerous. You don't throw that in the sea or in old mines. Then it leaks and ends up in the ground water. We thought: if it is stored in bunkers and we put those in the public domain, then it falls under the supervision of urban planning and is monitored.'
The first action by Mass and Individual Moving (MAIM) is a series of radioactive monuments. In an interview with newspaper De Morgen from 27 December 2000, Raphaël Opstaele says about nuclear waste: 'I assume that it is better to keep close what is dangerous. You don't throw that in the sea or in old mines. Then it leaks and ends up in the ground water. We thought: if it is stored in bunkers and we put those in the public domain, then it falls under the supervision of urban planning and is monitored.'
On the Robert Schuman Square in Brussels, a 7 tons concrete cube is placed, with the international sign for radiological danger embossed on the sides. The action happens opposite of what was then the building of the European Atomic Energy Community, Euratom. The concrete core contains radium 226. The monument is quickly removed by the demining service of the Belgian army. An identical monument is placed at the Cultureel Centrum in Turnhout, a little later it moves a bit further-up, to the Korte Mermansstraat, since a building permit is lacking. For the Leidseplein in Amsterdam, MAIM designed a cube with side surfaces of sod and the radiation warning symbol made of plastic flowers with tritium in each calyx. The third monument will end up in Utrecht, the fourth in Middelburg. A radioactive core is also transported to the Amazon Leticia region. The core consists of a sphere of tritium in a cube of polyester: symbol of our civilisation and the danger it poses to a world that has not yet been polluted.
The sixth radioactive monument is destined for Antwerp and is given the title Disaster Simulation / Fade Away, Radio Active Monument N° 6, Homage to Pieter Paul Rubens. This pessimistic eco-project is welcomed by international cultural centre ICC, which is organising a themed exhibition in the context of the Rubens year. On 22 March 1977, the rapid combustion of 100 kg of fireworks powder in the Antwerp port area (at the former village of Lillo), causes an artificial smoke column of 50 meters high. The action is set up in collaboration with fireworks maker Hendrickx from Deurne. From the Antwerp quays, people see the mushroom bomb that, as a temporary monument, refers to the atomic bomb of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Everything is filmed by Ludo Mich.
Parallel to the establishment of MAIM, the so-called Projet Orejona, an autonomous house designed by Luc Schuiten, is also being set up. The energy crisis of the early 1970s and the ensuing anti-nuclear energy movement has opened up the debate on alternative energy.
