THE MINE CONTEXT _
Before the mining period, the Province of Limburg, located in the east of Flanders, was populated by farmers, with a population of approximately 9800 people, living in small villages around the heather-covered region. At the beginning of the 20th century, coal was discovered and the population turned their attention to this new market. The coal brought large investments and the landscape changed drastically in a short period of time: garden districts, business infrastructure, new schools and other social provisions were set-up by the mining centers. [Reulens and Schaerlaekens 2008] The heath disappeared giving place to pine forests, because the wood was needed in the mines. In a few years the area was completely modified and seven major mining centres were developed: Winterslag [1917], Beringen [1922], Eisden [1923], Waterschei [1924], Zwartberg [1925], Zolder [1930], and Houthalen [1938-39]. [Reulens and Schaerlaekens 2008, 137-39]
After the boom years, and the immigration they encouraged, the mining crisis started in 1958 and between this period and 1992 all the mines were closed. There are still ten thousand people living in the mining region that either worked in the mines or are descendants of a mining family [Reulens and Schaerlaekens 2008, 138-39]. The area is still undergoing a constant change of landscape and commercial interest, which has the potential of distancing the population from its history. This may serve to show that it is actually not only the physical signs of the past that need to be preserved, but also that important part of this heritage that can only be grasped through conversations with the inhabitants and access to their experiences.
The recent past, future changes and the people linked to both, by their experience, provided the main motivation to use the ex-mining area as the object of investigation. In other words, the aim of working with the people from Winterslag was to gather data through their memories, going deep into their experienced time in the mines. The data collection was built by the inhabitants’ narrative of the mine environment, reconnecting the present time to the past.
This inquiry agrees with the UNESCO-conservation program’s resolution [World Heritage Committee, 1998] in which oral and intangible heritage were added to the world heritage list. This means that stories and customs are given the stamp of intangible heritage. Personal testimonies, from those who actively experienced/lived what is today considered heritage, are valued and people are asked to keep this heritage alive based on their own experience. [Reulens and Schaerlaekens 2008, 135-36] This resolution is considered relevant here because the narratives [stories] collected during the talks with the former miners are not only part of an artistic research practice but can also be archived as oral heritage, enabling part of the mine’s history to be told by the people who worked there. Oral heritage is an important branch of historical preservation in a sense that it applies emotion, sensibility and subjectivity to facts, and in this case to site.
This exposition explores people’s memory as heritage. The memory connected to a site that can trigger the experience of a moment in time. In other words, collective memory can be considered as a process of appropriation [Reulens and Schaerlaekens 2008, 135] of the desired period, and become the vehicle between people who lived the moment and the artist. “The transposition of the stories and reminiscences in an artistic creation makes it possible to expose the relevance of this past for today. When heritage seeks out related sectors like art and theatre, it is kept alive purely by its nature – its connection to the past.” [Reulens and Schaerlaekens 2008, 141] In this case, it is the importance of the old mine’s heritage for the Province of Limburg, its inhabitants and Belgium in general.
At first sight, one can comprehend how powerful the mining period has been for that region. Even though there is no more work at the mines and visiting the sites is prohibited, the landmarks are everywhere.