Folkestone Digs

From 30th August, hundreds of people descended on a small stretch of normally quiet beach in Folkestone, Kent, spades and trowels in hand. Creating mounds of wet sand, every once in a while people would gather around someone proudly holding up a small gold bar.

Following a year of secrecy over Situations’ project in the Triennial, Michael Sailstorfer’s Folkestone Digs began with a press announcement, which simply stated that 30 pieces of gold worth £10,000 had been buried under the sand of the harbour beach of a Kentish coastal town. The ensuing hunt for gold involved hundreds who had travelled from across the UK, with the story being reported across global news channels.