About
LA VILLENOIRE
Charleroi, La Ville Noire (The Black City), a small town close to Bruxelles, symbolizes by itself the whole of Europe. The collapse of the industrial manufacturing, the rising unemployment, the increasing immigration, the outbreak of micro-criminality. The regression of the social welfare, the lack of a shared identity. This feature is a journey to the roots of my family, which moved from Italy to the district of Charleroi in 1956 to work in the steel industry. Two generations have already succeeded in the promised land and, in the meantime, everything has changed. At this crossroad many populations united under the same roof of working opportunities were left without anything to share, as work vanished. Today social unease combines with the lives of the citizens. The roads, once blooming and neat, appear today desolated and abandoned, industries are closing down and spontaneous vegetation eats the old industrial districts. The same thing in a broader scale is happening in Europe. This project invites people to gaze into the very heart of Europe, unlike most stories of this genre which tend to be focused on the margins of Europe. Does it make any sense to stay together when the initial mission has almost failed? Will it be possible to have another chance? This is the question for Europe, this is the question for the dark heart of Europe.
I'm a son of this culture I investigated, and what pushed me to tell this story was an investigation on my own identity. My family moved from Italy to the district of Charleroi in 1956 to work in the coal industry. Half of my family still lives there, which is why I was granted such privileged and immediate access into the world I have captured in my photographs. The idea of the project was born a few years ago. My desire was to tell through this vicinity, through this relationship with these places and people this irritating, thorny theme. Our story is tied up with the European Community, with the political and social arguments that the introduction of the Union implied in our lives, dreams and ambitions.
The gas supply tubes run along the houses built near the steel factories of Charleroi.
In this gym many youngsters practise kick boxing.
Belgium reached the quarter-finals of the last World Cup.
Mr Etienne and his son have an armoured tank from the Second World War in their garden.
A typical skyline in Montignies-sur-Sambre.
A dummy for kickbox training.
A man waiting fot his wife outside the supermarket.
A woman in a psychiatric asylum and elderly home.
The daily rations of drugs for the asylum's patients.
My cousin agreed to be photographed while having sex with a girl in his friend’s car. For him it was not strange.
The electric blast furnace of Thy-Marcinelle.
A worker from Thy-Marcinelle.
A street view in Charleroi by night.
Philippe in his beautiful house in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Charleroi.
A street in Montignies-sur-Sambre.
Working out in a playground in Montignies-sur-Sambre.
A street view in Montignies-sur-Sambre.
A disco-restaurant in an aeroplane in Charleroi.
Friends hanging out in Goutroux.
In a garage in Goutroux.
Walking home in Goutroux.
One of a thousand police officers of Charleroi.
A steet view of Marcinelle by night.
Police officers charging the hooligans. In Charleroi the highest building is the police station which is 75m high.
Vadim, a painter who uses live models, creates a work inspired by an existing painting in his studio in Molenbeek.
Unkempt vegetation eats into the old industrial districts.
The husband of this couple was mowing the lawn.
Magali likes to be photographed by her husband on improvised sets.
A small arsenal of weapons in a house in the suburbs of Charleroi.
Montigny-le-Tilleul, one of the highest popolate neighbourhood of Charleroi.
Maitre Doberman and Klara receive guests in a building in Marchienne au Pont.
J keeps his gun hidden in a box in the woods.