Fieldwork III meeting: Nina de Vroome

Throughout the Fieldwork programme, the group meets at regular intervals. Each artist takes turns inviting the others to a moment of exchange, at a location that is relevant to their research at that time. On 25 January 2024, Nina de Vroome took the group to Bois-du-Luc, a municipality built on the history of its mining past. They visited the mining museum and watched a montage of images that Nina filmed there. 

The street names in Bois-du-Luc refer to the four cardinal directions, surrounded by a ring of saints: Rue Saint-Patrice, Rue Saint-Emmanuel and Rue Sainte-Barbe. If you look from Rue du Nord to Rue du Midi, you will see a detached stately house in the distance. This was the home of the director of the mine where all the inhabitants of Bois-du-Luc worked. Yes, all of them, because when someone was dismissed, he and his family had to leave the cité. 

What remains of the mining culture today? To what extent does the architectural form of the cité influence the way Bois-du-Luc is inhabited? And how can this collective past be activated in the present? 

As a filmmaker and writer, Nina de Vroome hopes to answer these questions.