how to say goodbye to a power station

Dana Olărescu

West Burton A, near Gainsborough - one of only three remaining coal-fired power stations in the UK - is scheduled to be decommissioned in August 2022. This collection of posters pays tribute to the building, to those who participated in its existence, and to the surrounding landscape and habitats.

Designed by socially engaged artist Dana Olărescu, in response to four months of workshops, informal conversations, and interviews with relevant communities, the posters form a creative response to the station’s decommissioning. The designs incorporate memories of those who worked at, lived near, or even simply glanced in the direction of West Burton A - as well as future scenarios for the building and landscape in 100 years’ time, as imagined by the same people.

Posters were informed by conversations with: Dr Ian Waites; Maddy Holroyd; x-church artists and young people who attend its alternative youth club; former and current West Burton A staff; Years 5 and 6 of North Leverton Academy and Sturton-le-Steeple C of E Primary School; the West Burton Residents’ Planning Group; Sturton-le-Steeple, North Leverton, and Gainsborough locals; and Gainsborough Heritage Association.

about Dana Olărescu

Dana Olărescu is a socially engaged artist working at the intersection of performance, installation, and social design, with a focus on challenging minority exclusion and environmental injustice. Through participatory methodologies that democratise access to art and knowledge, she aims to give agency to people habitually excluded from decision-making processes so they can become active co-producers of culture.