single channel video, 2026, 8 min 46 sec

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Winter of Machines juxtaposes two seemingly contrasting elements: the post-industrial landscape of Charleroi and the legacy of Futurism.

The inspiration for the film stems from Locus’s fascination with Fernand Steven’s futuristic mural Evocation de la chimie (1936–1938), located in the physics and chemistry lab of the Lycée Léonie de Waha in Liège. Through abstract, dynamic forms, the fresco expresses faith in science, industry and progress. An optimistic vision starkly opposed to Charleroi’s current reality of high unemployment, poverty and a negative reputation.

In Winter of Machines, Locus adopts a neutral, gentler stance. He alternates between images of present-day Charleroi—factories, warehouses and relics of its industrial past—and the promise embedded in Steven’s mural. Time seems suspended through a restrained montage of static, grey-toned shots devoid of human presence. The haunting soundtrack by sound artist Els Viaene also contributes to this exceptional, almost ghostly atmosphere.

Has the avant-garde and the industrial age failed in its promise of progress? Or are new upheavals still to come? Locus refuses to take sides, and Winter of Machines consequently breathes both a disquieting melancholy and a buoyant sense of anticipation.