EN / nl
Boltanski, Christian
b. 1944, Paris, France; lives and works in Malakoff, France
Les régistres du Grand-Hornu, 1997 Metal boxes, photographs and labels, 4.72 x 40.15 x 1.9 m, each box 35.5 x 19 x 19 cm Collection: Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu
Les régistres du Grand-Hornu is a huge and imposing work that Christian Boltanski made in situ in the hay storehouse at the former Grand Hornu coal mine. From the 19th through the first half of the 20th century, Grand-Hornu was one of many such mines developed and operated in the Walloon Borinage region. Since 2002 the old mining site has been the home of the Museum of Contemporary Art Grand Hornu. In anticipation of the site’s role as a museum, its director invited Christian Boltanski to create a work based on the site’s rich mining past. His installation covers a large wall, stacked with old tin boxes, which are covered with the photographs and registration numbers of the miners – including men, women and children – who worked at Grand-Hornu. These came from all corners of Europe: Wallonia, Flanders, Poland, Greece, Italy. The names of more than 3000 of them are displayed on the yellowing labels of the biscuit boxes. Such boxes were often used to store personal documents and family pictures behind a cupboard or under the bed. These objects are thus ingrained in our collective memory; the summary of a man’s life, as it were. With this installation the artist gives the miners a name and a face. Explaining that 5000 miners lived and worked at Grand-Hornu is an anonymous historical fact that is difficult to comprehend in human terms. By calling les mineurs by name, their individual stories come to life. MM