Combustion in Question was a format structured around formulating different questions towards and putting up a range of hot and cold experiments with materials from the former Tullara Brick Factory, Pristina, Kosovo. Experimenting involved sourcing, transforming, rearranging and re-making materials on site, trying out transformations on different scales: The change of used materials into raw materials, chemical changes of material properties (e.g. through combustion), tangible and processual spatial transformations, de-stackable prototypes and the development of an infrastructure for the production and transformation of ingredients into dishes and moments of encounter.

Fire, water, and simple tools were used, as well as discussions, local research and low-tech laboratory set-ups to develop material surfaces and connection techniques. In the total of two weeks, the research phase of the first week focused on the building & firing & deconstructing & rebuilding of a series of kilns, from which the resources and building materials for a kitchen counter were excavated. Consequently, the modified materials were used to produce a site-specific prototype of an outdoor working kitchen as a common and public infrastructure for the factory in transformation.

The workshop related the conception and construction of several elements that have different durabilities:

1 ) a series of temporary, sculptural, diy ceramic ovens/ kilns, constructed of bricks and fired among others on the opening weekend of Manifesta. The results – remnants of the former brick factory – were ceramic objects glazed and coloured through the burning (e.g traditional tile glazing green + blue and black surface through reduction burning + extended by effects through reactions in the wood fire, changing the colors and surfaces of the materials)

2 ) an outdoor working surface made from reglazed bricks / kitchen that includes a low-tech stove heated through wood fire (a rocket stove using thin branches and sticks) and a low-tech sink from crushed bricks’ concrete which “wastewater” irrigates beds with plants as a public infrastructure for the 100 days of manifesta and potentially beyond that, for the brick factory in transformation.