The research project “Remixing Industrial Pasts in the Digital Age” of the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) is part of the European Capital of Culture Esch 2022’s University of Luxembourg’s projects.
“Remixing Industrial Pasts in the Digital Age” projects explore, in an unprecedented, innovative visual and digital approach, the history of cultures, populations and territories of the Minett region from different perspectives and angles. They also look at the circulation and flow of ideas, people and goods between Luxembourg, France and other European countries.
Events are programmed for the whole duration of the European Capital of Culture Esch 2022
Minett Stories
Among these projects highlights, the virtual exhibition “Minett Stories” is a digitally-conceived exhibition, accessible online.
The virtual exhibition Minett Stories deals with the history and identity of the Minett, the industrial region in southern Luxembourg. These stories are detailed in 22 chapters and illustrate how the Minett region was shaped by the iron and steel industry between the years 1870-1970. Rapid economic and population growth, urbanisation and labor migration have had a major impact on the history of the region, as have economic crises, environmental pollution and precarious housing and living conditions.
The Minett Stories virtual exhibition was developed in collaboration between the Remix team, Milan-based design studio Calibro and Bergamo-based software company Inmagik. The Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History’s Remix team spent two and a half years researching and sourcing the underlying sources, designing the exhibition, and writing all the storyboards, scripts, story texts, and captions for the exhibition chapters. The focus was on various forms of transmedia storytelling, including several interactive video documentaries, graphic novels, interactive maps, interactive podcasts, and two radio plays.
This virtual project is based on the multimedia exhibition “Remixing Industrial Pasts: Constructing the Identity of the Minett” which took place from 27 February till 15 May 2022 at the Massenoire, a former industrial hall in Belval, as part of the European Capital of Culture Esch 2022 events.
View the virtual exhibition online
From Boom to Bust: The History of Industrial Regions (1870-1970 and beyond)
An international conference on 9 and 10 June 2022
“From Boom to Bust: The History of Industrial Regions” deals with the continuous and complex transformation of European industrial regions from industrialisation to de- and post-industrialisation, from circa the 1870s to the 1970s. It is the topic of an international conference organised by the “Remixing Industrial Pasts” team on 9 June – 10 June 2022 at the Maison du Savoir (room 3.350) on the Belval Campus.
The conference aims to tackle the geographical scope, ranging from the industrial regions of Western Europe in Portugal, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Great Britain to the far north of Norway and Central and Eastern Europe (former GDR and Poland). The comparative long-term perspective sheds light on the different conditions of regional development and the cycles of boom and bust in the European context.
Four main topics are emphasised: The housing situation of workers and their families; the decline of mining regions; the socio-political resistance of industrial workers; and the journalistic and visual representation of everyday life and industry using the example of the Minett – the industrial region in southern Luxembourg.
More information about the conference
Attendance to the conference is by reservation: vanessa.napolitano@uni.lu
“Liewen am Minett” revisited
This project relates to the famous photo book “Liewen am Minett” that documented the Minett region in the late 1980s. The documentary film “Identity Disputes: The Image of Life in the Minett”, illustrates the Minett region and its transformation over decades. In this film, C²DH researcher Viktoria Boretska revisits this project some 35 years after the publication of the “Liewen am Minett” photo book, interviewing some of the photo book’s protagonists and younger photographers that still document the region. (The docu-film was presented on 21 May 2022 at the Centre national de l’audiovisuel de Dudelange, within the Forum Z events).
The Minett Stories Rallye
This mobile game, launched on 28 February 2022, is designed for smart phones. It features a treasure hunt taking the players on a journey through the old landmarks and relics of the former Ironworks of Belval. Solving riddles and following a trail of clues leads to the discovery of nine secret locations connected to the history of Belval’s industrial past.
Play the game (mobile devices only)