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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
Of a fantasy universe of touristic, tertiary, and green activities.Industry is, however, a hallmark for communities like Charleroi. Its status can be disturbing and problematic. However, industry was not an unintended accident on the landscape. It is in fact, a consequence of human activity, ambition, and ingenuity. We cannot examine these sites outside of the context of nature or history. This is what slag heaps are all about –from the transition of dark, abandoned waste piles to areas of high ecological quality that are now driving the collective imagination of a city and its inhabitants.To ensure slag heaps’ future, they need to be recognized, protected and nurtured. Waste management should be organized by its users to avoid compromising the preservation of biodiversity that now lives there. Slag heaps can’t be covertly patrimonialized. Their history cannot be forgotten. Their heritage lies in the materialization of what they truly are: a fascinating era in the history of men and wealth exploitation.Thankfully, a large part of Charleroi’s community is still committed in the fight to preserve the condition of these monuments. People’s interest regarding slag heaps is now expanding out beyond the city, urging the general public to come and contemplate the beautiful results of post-industrial pollution. Constantin Meunier (Belgian, 1831–1905).Path descending from the slag heap (left), A slag heap in the Borinage (right).CITATIONS:¹DUVIGNEAUD, P. TANGHE, M. DENAEYER-DE SMET, S. and DUBOIS F. Des terrils de charbonnages considérés comme écosystèmes : Contribution n° 1 : Le terrils n°7 de Chapelle-Les-Herlaimont. Site, végétation et pricipaux biotopes, Bulletin de la Société Royale de Botanique de Belgique, 1971, p.302²Ibid ³Brochure sur la valorisation des terrils, Plar une nouvelle valorisation des terrils dans la ville et la région, dans une perspective de développement durable, https://www.espace-environnement.be/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Valorisation_terrils_Brochure.pdf, Consulté le 15 octobre 2019 ⁴JOULIAN, F. TASTEVIN, Y. FURNISS, J. Réparer le monde:une introduction, Techniques & Culture, 65-66-1-2, 2016, p. 14-27.FURTHER READING:Manifeste du Tiers Paysage (Gilles Clément)Landcape and Landschaft (Denis Cosgrove)Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (Mary Douglas) Marion Henry is a design graduate from Université du Québec à Montréal and is currently completing her master's degree at ENSAV La Cambre. She is co-founder and Editor of Echelles magazine. Brunella Danna-Allegrini holds an undergraduate and masters in Archeology and Art history from the University of Provence, as well as a second master's in Urban Sociology from EHESS in Marseille. Brunella manages, l‘Artothèque de Wolubilis, a cultural space in Brussels. Lead image: Christophe Vendercam, 2012 via Wikimedia Commons.Photography courtesy of the authors.Paintings by Constantin Meunier (1831-1905)––a Belgian painter and sculptor known for elevating industrial workers into icons of modernity in the late 19th Century. His work, spanning several mediums, helped define the period’s social-realism movement in Europe,
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