The once proud factory that laid the foundation for a whole town - La Louvière – has all but disappeared, and in it’s place a newly designed commercial zone attempting to replace some of the lost livelihoods... as a small retribution to the once mighty Faïencerie Royal de Boch & Fréres a pottery museum has been installed in the only remaining building, housing the old kilns... an a sumptuous collection of their production, albeit not as extensive as it might have been... it’s a pity that the town that owes its existence didn’t see fit to keep more of it’s heritage, perhaps link it to a wider cultural background (Anna Boch, member of Les XX and ‘La Libre Esthétique ’ was the only one to buy a Van Gogh painting during his lifetime)
Just outside the museum, broken terrain where once vast halls of ceramics stood...
Here, in another one of her intriguing projects, Anne Mortiaux had been quietly scraping away dirt in a combination of archeological dig, wild public/urban garden, landscape installation and artistic as well as social investigation. All through the summer she had been scouring the grounds for remains of a once glorious past together with local kids and residents from around the site as well as former employees, who, not only could help in identifying the fragments unearthed, but add their own stories to the whole affair as well as give is all an important context: It was an affair because as so often, this wonderful piece of history – no only local – was in fact mismanaged and victim of short sighted greediness...
as often is the case.
Suffice to say that bad management let things slide, and by the time the factory expanded into functional ceramics (loo’s & washbasins) in the seventies, it was already too late, and lackluster vision and updating production created an untenable situation in which only a handful of workers were left to defend the honor of the great Boch name in a dilapidated ruin... Workers who would give their all to save the place, but confronted with owners that would not shoulder the debt even though they could have done easily... striking to no avail, a last flicker of hope when a last-minute takeover seemed to breathe life into the remains only to find out that they had been had and the whole thing was just a phantom transaction...
pictures of protest and resistance by former employees as part of the presentation
I remember passing the site and being amazed that city, state and government could let this all happen... various artists wandered through the halls, taking picture of the stacks of half-finished ceramics, just waiting for a glimpse of hope... but vandalism and decay soon took over and no-one was interested... these were the days when larger, more viable factories were laying off thousands and moving to low-wage countries... nobody gave a hoot for a 40-odd crew of die-hards... but they kept going until last...
This is also a story being told in the workshops that Anne Mortiaux has created... on the one hand a playful replica of the processes in making ceramics, with children enjoying all the different hands-on stages of production, working clay, decoration, sorting and comparing, setting out schematic production lines... while at the same time immersing the whole thing in history – the history of the illustrious factory, to be sure, but also the history of the syndic battle, the social & personal impact on lives & livelihoods... for that seems to be an aspect that has not yet been demonstrated on a wider scale – especially not in the museum (up till now) – perhaps understandably, being not such a happy episode... but this project could present itself as a prototype for a way to present this ugly aspect in the most sympathetic way possible, and help future generations to perhaps avoid the disastrous demise of an otherwise perfectly viable business...
There will be a further series of diggings & investigations during the next year when the weather permits, so keep an eye out: plans are taking shape to build up the area soon.
See the site of Keramis, La Louviere
photos begin and end LL
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