is a Dutch artist
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International Seminar (tickets
Kick-off the Anti-City Guide
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is a Dutch artist
Home
Work
Shop
About
Contact
Currently working on
Next Up
International Seminar (tickets
Kick-off the Anti-City Guide
Watch
Exhibition
Oranje Nassau-I terrein, Heerlen
1.9.2025 / 31.12.2025
Opening: seminar kick-off The Anti-City Guide (tickets
The exhibition De Vrolijke Vernietiging tells the story of a vanished landscape and a city in transition. On the former site of the Oranje Nassau I mine—once the beating heart of Heerlen's mining past—a free open-air exhibition unfolds through monumental XXL billboards.
The title De Vrolijke Vernietiging is named after the photo essay in the book De Antistad (The Anti-City) and carries an ironic undertone: the destruction of the mining infrastructure was presented as a necessary step toward renewal, but resulted in loss of identity and a city without tangible memory of its glory days. Where other European mining cities cherish their industrial heritage, the Netherlands chose a tabula rasa—a radical break with the past, disguised as progress.
The exhibition is curated by Maurice Hermans and features images from the Wismans Collection made by Jan Wismans, one of the supervisers of the destruction of the Oranje Nassau mines. Between April 1975 and August 1978, Wismans photographed the works every week. It also shows contemporary photography of the Bosnian city of Zenica. There, the last mine closes in the last months of 2024, exactly fifty years after Heerlen. Zenica is where Heerlen once was: on the threshold of major change. This parallel places Heerlen's past in a broad European perspective and raises questions about heritage, identity and the consequences of industrial transformations.
Visitors can walk freely and use a QR code to listen to an audio walk that reveals the stories behind the vanished heritage.
This project is realized through a collaboration between BPD Culture Fund, Culture Fund, Cultura Nova, municipality of Heerlen, Stadsregio Parkstad Limburg, Stimulerings Fund, Studio Europa, the Year of Heerlen Heritage and ZUYD University of Applied Sciences.