From forgotten factories to thriving cultural hubs, this French-language study traces a dozen European sites where artists reclaimed industrial wastelands, unpacking not just the history of these "cultural wastelands" but the real, ongoing challenge of keeping them alive.
About the book
Note: this publication is in French. Author: Françoise Lucchini. Publisher: University Presses of Rouen and Le Havre. Series: History & Heritage. Publication date: 19 July 2016.
What role do art and culture play in the evolution of urban spaces? This book explores the conversion and reappropriation of industrial wastelands by artistic circles, whether or not they are connected to local institutions. Drawing on a dozen European sites where artistic practices have taken over abandoned industrial buildings, it is both a history of "cultural wastelands" since the 1970s and a reflection on the methods of reappropriation by cultural actors, architects, audiences and local residents. Finally, it addresses the question of heritage and heritage designation in relation to the new destiny of these spaces.
These reterritorialisations of cultural production, which enrich the areas around them, share common characteristics: a genius loci, minimal architectural intervention, a laboratory for cultural experimentation and exchange, and a hybridisation of industrial past and contemporary artistic activity. The book doesn't shy away from the difficulties of these conversions either, including tensions between differently valued types of activity, the attitude of the public, and, above all, the challenge of making these new cultural venues sustainable in the long term.