Mineur Mineur

five simultaneous videos, colour, sound, 14 min
props, metal structure, monitors, wall paint,
200 cm × 500 cm × 233 cm

Mineur Mineur consists of five videos made with children working in extraction mines: silver in Bolivia, coal in India, gold in Thailand, tin in Indonesia, and sapphires in Madagascar.

The project began three years ago during a residency in Lens, after making several films* with the participation of residents from the mining town of her grandparents in Barlin, Pas-de-Calais. Here, she focuses on children working in mines today. The travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to rethink her working methods. To produce her videos, Bertille Bak conducted remote filming for the first time, in cooperation with associations advocating for the education of child miners. She entrusted local videographers with the filming and coordinated a joint action across the five countries.

In each of the films, the children navigate underground labyrinths, pass through walls, and slide down chutes. They playfully reenact the paths they take in the mines and prepare for a fair, a recreational activity they are denied. The work transforms the dark reality of this underground economic exploitation into children's games. Mineur Mineur enchants to better reveal and create dissonance, echoing the soundtrack, a tune composed with recorders, accordions, and dissonant sounds

production :
-- Fondation des Artistes, Institut français et La Criée centre d’art contemporain

Design and realization of metal structures:
-- Charles-Henry Fertin, atelier L’ensemblier