Buska
Buska begins with a botanical journey to the Datu cactus on Curaçao. This columnar plant was used by enslaved people to fence the small plots allocated to them on plantations—living boundaries marking both oppression and survival. Following Datu through the island’s landscape reveals how colonial violence continues to shape the environmental crisis.
In 1915, Royal Dutch Shell built an oil refinery at the island’s heart. Seventy years later, the company sold it for one guilder, evading responsibility for decades of pollution. The Datu witnessed this transformation from plantation economy to industrial sacrifice zone, still standing as colonial boundaries evolved into petrochemical contamination.
Through archival materials and contemporary photography, Buska traces patterns of exploitation across time. The work explores how violence persists not through dramatic events, but through contaminated landscapes and communities living with consequences they did not create.
Find out more:
Website: tobiasbijl.com
Instagram: @thebeforearchive