In Belgium, Charleroi is known for its legacy of coal mining and heavy industry, with the coal heaps that have long defined the city’s skyline.

I did not grow up in Charleroi, but my father’s family lived there. As a child, I remember the artificial hills that seemed like mountains, marking the landscape along the road on Sunday afternoons as we drove to visit relatives. I had little interest in the conversations back then, and was mostly there for the candies and cookies. They are all gone now, and most are buried in a cemetery at the foot of one of these heaps. Sometimes, during my walks, I pass the houses where they once lived and think back to those conversations about things I was too young to understand, and about a past I never knew.

Today, the heaps are much greener than I remember. Trees and bushes have gradually covered their seemingly barren slopes, transforming them into unexpected sanctuaries for biodiversity. Through Sombres Collines, I explore their enduring presence in the landscape, and the way these artificial hills have become intertwined with the city and its memory.

This series is in progress and will be the second chapter of a larger documentary body of work on Charleroi, following a city in the midst of rapid transformation.

To be continued