Marcel Scheible | Director

Marcel Scheible (* 1974) is a visual artist and filmmaker. He lives and works in Basel, Switzerland.
His approach is documentary, site-specific and his main interest is our living space. How do people shape the landscape and what role do art and nature play in it? What social concepts and visions are concealed in architecture and urban development?
He has been working as an auteur producer on various documentaries since 2019. His first short film "Green Panther" is shown at the 2021 Short Film Night. 2022 he founds the "Sel et Poivre GmbH | Audiovisuelle Produktionen". 2023-24 he publishes 8 short films about art in public space as part of the art education project "all around Basel" (allaroundbasel.ch).
2024 he completes the short film "ABHANG" after more than 2 years of work. He is currently working on the development of the documentary film essay "Merkwürdige Dreiecke".
Director Statement
For us Swiss children of the 1980s, it was clear that nothing should be thrown into the forest, even if it was polluted in many places. Nevertheless, in our childish eyes, finding things in the forest was something adventurous rather than polluting.
Five years ago, I visited a disused landfill site for the first time. Since January 2022, I have been visiting various landfill sites regularly with my film camera.
‘I feel carefully with my foot. Can the ground bear my weight? The gloomy spirit of the throwaway society hovers over the landfill. Beneath me and the forest floor lie rusty barrels, fridges and tyres. What would the objects tell me if they could speak? I imagine the scattered car wrecks as proud objects of prestige.
Trees take root between building rubble and through tyres. Nature and the excrements of our society come together in a disconcerting way.’
Today, Switzerland is one of the world's leading countries in recycling and environmental protection. This surreal sight irritates me all the more. I search the land register for landfill sites and find endless entries.
In spring 2022, I discover the multi-part film projection ‘La Suisse s'interroge’ by Henry Brandt at the Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel. Brandt documented Switzerland on film for Expo 64 and critically scrutinised it. In the chapter ‘Growth’, he shows the downside of the young consumer society and films mountains of rubbish and polluted waters.
For me, this closes a circle: what Brandt criticised on film 60 years ago still lies in our forests and waters today. Looking back into the past raises the question of what happens to our rubbish in the ground today and in the future. The research takes me to Solothurn, where the ‘Stadtmist’ landfill is currently being remediated. Over a total area of 16 hectares, the soil is being excavated several metres deep and cleaned. From 1925 to 1976, municipal waste was disposed of here and covered
with a layer of soil. Within 6 years, this mass will now be excavated and cleaned in the specially built plant on site.
However, not all sites are remediated. Just 4% of all landfill sites are considered polluting and are cleaned up, the rest remain as they are. The ‘sins of yesterday’ may one day become archaeological finds. Until then, they will remain surreal backdrop and memorial to our throwaway society.
‘ABHANG’ sheds light on our relationship with nature in a poetic and dramatic way and critically scrutinises our throwaway society.
Marcel Scheible
Basel, March 2024