DE VROLIJKE VERNIETIGING / THE DELIRIOUS DESTRUCTION
Free open-air exhibition
Oranje-Nassaupark, Heerlen (entrance across CBS-weg 11)
1.9.2025 / 31.12.2025

Curated by Maurice Hermans the exhibition tells the story of a vanished and vanishing landscape. It is named after the photo essay in the book De Antistad (The Anti-City) and has an ironic edge: destroying Dutch mining heritage was sold as a necessary step toward renewal, but it actually led to a loss of identity and an orphaned community.

While other European mining cities treasure their industrial heritage, the Dutch chose a clean slate—a radical break with the past, dressed up as progress.

The Vrolijke Vernietiging features both images by Jan Wismans, one of the coordinators overseeing the destruction of Heerlen's Oranje-Nassau mines, and by Bosnian-Dutch photographer Mladen Pikulić.
Fifty years after the Oranje-Nassau I mine closed, the Bosnian city of Zenica is shutting down its last coal mine. Zenica is where Heerlen once was: on the brink of major change. Pikulić’ images mirror the rigorous Dutch approach: they show Zenica's slow but inevitable break from the all-powerful industry.

Will Zenica escape The Delirious Destruction?

The Delirious Destruction is part of the international publication project The Anti-City Guide, of which the first edition is expected in summer 2026.

© 2025 Maurice Hermans, Mladen Pikulić, HCL

Design: Buro Marcel van der Heyden / Print: PPM Concepts & projects / Historisch Centrum Limburg. Toegang 519 Dia’s sloop Oranje Nassau Mijnen, ca. 1975 / Soundwalk: Marten Minkema / Editing: Hanna Zwart, Thijmen Hermans / English translation: Claude AI

Visitors can walk freely and listen to the soundwalk on site.

#vrolijkevernietiging #deliriousdestruction

De Vrolijke Vernietiging is part of the Year of Heerlen Heritage 2025 and supported by: BPD Culture Fund, Culture Fund, Cultura Nova, het Nederlands Mijnmuseum, municipality of Heerlen, Stadsregio Parkstad Limburg, Stimulerings Fund, Studio Europa, the Year of Heerlen Heritage and ZUYD University of Applied Sciences.

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Listen to OVT-doc on Radio 1 (broadcasted live on 7.9.2025) and to the additional inteview with Alderman of Heerlen Casper Gelderblom: