Creative Exploration of a Canadian Placer Gold Claim

A mining claim is a parcel of land for which the claimant has asserted a right of possession and the right to develop and extract a discovered, valuable, mineral deposit. This right does not include exclusive surface rights. 

Imagine if the claimants who had possession over a mining claim were artists, and their valuable extraction was artistic exploration, community building and transdisciplinary creative development. How would the artist as occupant of a mining claim reimagine mining techniques, material use and reinterpret what can take place underneath the land's surface?

Keywords: Art Residency, Bunkers, Geography, Income inequality, Land ownership, Land-claim, Minerals, Mining, Repossession and Supply

Temporary Investments has operated as a pseudo real estate company that repurposes historic land claiming protocols to offer individuals the ability to claim under-utilized, vacant urban space. Over the last few years we have experienced how increasing economic and income disparities, and subsequent unaffordability of commercial and residential property ownership, has affected Canadian cities. As a result, we’ve felt the immediate, crippling economic impact this has had on marginalized, lgbtq2+ and underrepresented emerging arts communities. Faced with this, we decided to shift our focus from urban sites to the abundance of Canadian rural space. And so, we discovered that Placer Gold Claims are available at relatively affordable rates in British Columbia.   With this expanded exploration of the possibility for land claim in rural settings, Temporary Investments is continuing to research and looking for investors to purchase a placer gold claim in interior British Columbia; we anticipate the claim to be conveniently located in between the major cities Vancouver, Prince George and Kelowna. The underground utopia may act as a connecting point between the southern, northern, eastern and international art communities, a hidden safe place to experiment and dream below the surface.