Sugar CUBES

In 2024 Sana Ghobbeh got the sup­port of the Flemish govern­ment for the research and cre­a­ti­on of a new per­for­man­ce. For the first time she would be wor­king with a site of public infra­struc­tu­re that she had not been pre­sent at phy­si­cally herself: The ruins of the Kahrizak sugar factory.

To miti­ga­te this lack of embo­died know­led­ge, Sana set up an exten­si­ve research pro­ject, Sugar CUBES, to explo­re the his­to­ric ties bet­ween Belgium’s sugar indu­stry and the foun­da­ti­on of the Kahrizak sugar refi­ne­ry, to fami­li­a­ri­se herself with the beet-based pro­cess of sugar pro­duc­ti­on that was used in both cases, to dig through archi­ves for tra­ces of Belgian fami­lies that went to live in Iran to help set up the fac­to­ry, loo­king for paral­lels and diver­gen­ces in the sto­ries of Kahrizak and Tienen.

The sugar fac­to­ry in Tienen, Belgium, whe­re the famous sugar cube was inven­ted, is a sto­ry of suc­ces. It is still an eco­no­mic power­hou­se for the city and coun­try, and mem­bers of the fami­ly that foun­ded it are some of the richest Belgians ali­ve. In stark con­trast, the fac­to­ry in Kahrizak, that was foun­ded with the help of Belgian indu­stri­a­lists, is now a ruin. A pla­ce that has beco­me hard to find, crum­bling behind old walls and newer resi­den­ti­al are­as that hide it away from sight. The site is listed, offi­ci­al­ly recog­ni­sed as one of the ear­liest examples of indu­stri­al archi­tec­tu­re in Iran. But in rea­li­ty it is unpro­tec­ted, a for­got­ten sli­ce of his­to­ry, a con­nec­ti­on peo­p­le no lon­ger remem­ber and care for.

During this research a fac­to­ry visit to the sugar refi­ne­ry in Tienen was made, to learn about both the his­to­ry of the fac­to­ry and the tech­ni­ca­li­ties of the refi­ning pro­ce­du­re, gathering as well an embo­died know­led­ge of how tons boi­led beets can make a cer­tain smell embra­ce a city.

We tal­ked with the cura­tor of the local his­to­ri­cal muse­um to learn how the rela­ti­ons­hip bet­ween the fac­to­ry and the city had evol­ved over time, and we got in touch with the city archi­ves to explo­re the tra­ces of his­to­ric sugar pro­ducts made for Iranian export, the con­struc­ti­on of the Kahrizak sugar refi­ne­ry, and the visit made by the Shah or Iran to Tienen in the 1960s.

The many know­led­ges dee­pe­ned by this research allo­wed Sana to recre­a­te and re-ima­gi­ne her own under­stan­ding of the Kahrizak site, which led to the cre­a­ti­on of the per­for­man­ce These roots never blos­so­med.