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Architects: Anna Saint-Pierre, Atelier Faber
- Area: 114 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Giaime Meloni
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Lead Architects: Luca Antognoli, Gabriel Pontoizeau (Atelier Faber) in collaboration with Anna Saint-Pierre
Text description provided by the architects. The Gaïette installation is a work created and realized by Atelier Faber and Anna Saint-Pierre, commissioned by the city of Raismes and the association Art et Jardins Hauts-de-France. The association’s mission is to reveal and question the heritage and memorial sites of the Hauts-de-France region.
Gaïette spectacularly captures the transformation of the Raismes landscape, a metamorphosis shaped by a century of mining activity and the subsequent evolution of the site into a park post-1980. The landscape is characterized by mountains of shale covered with birches, remnants of brick embedded in clay and soil, and the ghostly presence of a head frame, which was the starting point for a descent into the mines.
The title “Gaiette” refers not only to the coveted coal fragments but also to the women who meticulously distinguished these gleaming, brilliant treasures from the surrounding shale. The artists chose to represent the former pits, now invisible, with solid cylindrical structures, replicating their ground coverage (Ø3-5m). The installation serves as a spatial reference to imagine the miners' journey during their descent to a depth of 700 meters.
Adding a tactile dimension to this narrative, the installation features wooden shingles coated in a lustrous black coal paint, derived from gaiettes collected around the Sabatier pit. These shingles, painted by the community during interactive workshops, are installed on four wooden cylinders, replicating the diameters of the former Sabatier and Vicoigne extraction pits, and offer a spatial exploration of this nearly erased history. Notably, the Scots pines used for the shingles are sourced from the Raismes forest, a woodland cultivated by German prisoners after World War I as part of the war debt, and intended to reinforce the underground galleries.
Strategically placed at the base of the Sabatier headframe, flanked by spoil tips 174 and 175, Gaïette is more than a visual exhibit. It encapsulates the essence of Raismes' mining heritage, echoing the profound landscape, societal, and economic upheavals induced by coal mining, a defining element of the Anthropocene era. This artistic endeavor also symbolizes the local community's determination to safeguard their history, standing firm against industrial encroachment and preserving the essence of their collective identity.
