When they first approached the Sefanitro factory, the remains of the factory built in 1942 could be seen on the same site as a result of the demolition of the year 2000 and the factory section that would continue to operate until 2012. The new desulphurisation plant was built in 1986, on the other, in some way, and adapted to a new use. Ibai Etxazarraga and BEÑAT Guarrotxena, creators of the Collective Fireplace, were attracted by their contact with the estuary and by being in front of the Lutxana neighborhood.

Calle Buen Pastor separates the neighborhood and the factory of Lutxana. The fact that the demolition of the factory was planned for 2012 made ideas, intentions and objectives upside down, but they found it an unbeatable opportunity. It attracted the ability to study the factory firsthand, to see how it works, to follow through to the month, to meet every day with the workers. To a large extent, the two architects became workers in the building.

The fireplace, more than a symbol

The first steps of the dismantling of Befesa Desulphurisation took place in May 2011. Conveyor belts, uralite closure, covers and some machine were dismantled, among others. In mid-August, demolition machines entered the factory grounds and began to work. They began with the pyrite store that was part of Sefanitro.

On 17 November 2011, at 18:40 hours, the first part of the Befesa fireplace fell. The priming tower of the raw material and the electrical substation number 17, meanwhile, remained standing until the summer of 2012. Today there is only the loadable that comes to the estuary. It won't last long.

The Kea short film summarizes the history of this collapse and, above all, the time when the Befesa fireplace falls. “Smoke is the story of a shared and shared project, of honest and active collaboration. It is a way to pay homage to the people who have had our recent and protagonist past, a tribute to the industrial architecture,” they explain from Chimney Collective.

Kea is a short film made under the direction of Lara Izagirre and with the screenplay of Ibai Etxezarraga and BEÑAT Guarrotxena. Only the noise of the factory is heard in 15 minutes. It reflects the affection, preventive nostalgia or the responsibility to keep the memory of a building in danger of collapse. Industrial aesthetic is considered the summit of human evolution and the main cause of the destruction of the planet.

The people behind the film are neighbours and, above all, workers from Sefanitro and Befesa. The demolition of the factory has united and divided the neighbors of the Lutxana neighborhood into two groups. After all, as Etxazarraga and Guarrotxena say, this “empty” industrial aesthetic cannot be understood without the human stories behind it. Therefore, they demand the recovery of these spaces from the Collective Fireplace, as has already been done in other European countries. The industrial area on the banks of the Ruhr river in Germany is an example of this. “Industrial heritage will not be patrimony until someone notifies it. Industrial aesthetics is an important part of art history. You have to respect it, work it and study it as such.”