Public history

Rëm.xx: Rumelange, a post-industrial town and its cultural heritage revisited

16 November 2021

Rumelange rue des Bruyères

House and workplace of artist Albert Hames.

Photo by MMFE, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 lu, via Wikimedia Commons

Lecture by Giny Laroche , co-founding partner of The Impact Lab. The hybrid event is part of the REMIX lecture series.

Rumelange, a former mining city, has gradually transformed into a dormitory and transit town, largely losing its cultural identity, prosperity and vigour on the way. Combining these challenges with limits to potential spatial expansion and increasing urban density, it was the town’s ambition to reinvent itself by building the post-industrial revitalisation process upon the strong values that characterized this former mining hotspot - innovation, proximity, collaboration, community cohesion, welcoming culture, diversity and authenticity. To this end, the family house of the late sculptor Albert Hames (1910-1989), classified as a national monument and including the only preserved workshop of a late Luxembourg artist, will be transformed into a unique immersive hotspot of creative tourism. The project combines physical experiences and immersive technologies while empowering local residents as key drivers of the social and economic development of Rumelange. The future Albert Hames site will be distinguished by a multifunctional approach pushing the limits of the creative experience and erasing the boundaries between what’s real and virtual, past and future, heritage and contemporary creation, close and far, between artist and audience, resident and traveller, local citizen and tourist, creator and observer…An experimental space rather than a place of traditional memory, the future Albert Hames site will open in the fall of 2022 on the occasion of Esch 2022 European Capital of Culture.

Giny Laroche holds a Master in Political Science, a Bachelor degree in Cultural Management and certificates in territorial cultural development strategies and moderation of design thinking and open innovation processes. Former head of the minister’s office and spokeswoman of the Minister of Culture of Luxemburg, she, inter alia, supervised and monitored the implementation of national strategies and projects of great national interest and was board member of several cultural institutions. As former Kirchberg district manager,  Giny co-designed and implemented Quartier Stuff, the first citizen social innovation lab nationally and internationally qualified as best practice by experts in urban design, economic development, social innovation and cradle to cradle. In her actual role as co-founding partner of The Impact Lab, she is brought i.e. to develop strategies and approaches for citizen participation, cross-sector and multi-stakeholder processes and to design museography and strategic cultural development concepts. Giny is furthermore core member of the European Innovation Council Jury who selects innovations for funding under the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument , part of the pool of experts to the Panel of the European Capital of Culture action and (co) expert for Luxembourg to the international Compendium for Cultural Policies and Trends.

 

Tuesday, 16 November 2021

17.00 - 18.30

Hybrid event: Webex and DH Lab (Maison des Sciences humaines)

To receive the link to this online event, please send an e-mail to Werner Tschacher (werner.tschacher@uni.lu).