DEUXIÈME SAISON

The first season of this mining era began in the 1960s, when investors began to take an interest in the mountain overlooking the village and the minerals it contained. When the site came on stream a few years later, the region enjoyed an economic and demographic boom, which came to a halt fifteen years later when the mine suddenly closed. The village was emptied of its miners and their families, and the mining company left behind a polluted site. In 2015, following the government’s desire to return to the production of minerals « made in France », a new mining project was launched. Since then, a legal battle has ensued, leaving the project in limbo.

Working together, Lucas Castel and Mathilde Mahoudeau explore the different aspects of this issue through their photographic work, which focuses on nature, which has been resolutely impacted by past mining operations, and where the landscape is seen as the narrator of a tension between two eras, two seasons.