Assignment
“The Mine” is an old huge coalmine complex near Beringen, Belgium, that is no longer in use. The complex will be redeveloped to transform it into an Artist-in-Residence project, a place where 10 artists can live and produce and present their work in a period of two weeks. The disciplines dans, architecture, music and multimedia are all possible methods of creating art.
The design
The site in Beringen contains many very big buildings, all with their own function in the former mine complex. The area should keep this historic quality where different buildings contribute to the whole complex in their own unique way. That is why the artist-in-residence will be placed inside one of the buildings on the complex, so the rest of the complex can develop as a cultural environment with different buildings contributing to this new function in their own way.
One of the most inspiring places on the site is the old electricity hall. All the electricity the mine needed was produced here in the old days, using giant machinery. The building is full of old installations but also has a spectacular open space.
To redevelop the Electricity hall to an artist-in-residence machine, the old function of the hall changed 180 degrees. Before, the basement was used to hold technical infrastructure such as pipes and electricity lines. The huge hall above was the place where the face of the machinery showed itself to the public, a romanticized view on the real installations needed to keep the mine alive.
To divert this picture, the visitors of the future mine can experience the real installations needed to keep the mine working in the basement. The artists can live and work in the area above, where there is much more room and light. The exposition places are formed as 10 huge holes in the floor that seperates these two worlds, creating a very interesting play of light. In these “exposition holes” the visitor and the artist meet and get a view in each others worlds.
