Memoirs of women
from mining familiesArtresearch project

The Memoirs of Women from Mining Families project constitute a multimedia artivist research project aimed at gathering narratives, domestic archival materials, oral herstories, and photographic portraits of women from mining backgrounds (including female miners!), from all over the Silesian region (and potentially from around the world).

These elements document the existence of “ghostly” places described in the memoirs. The existence within non-existence primarily pertains to closed mines, still deeply embedded in the collective memory of the community. The mine’s closure had far-reaching repercussions for residents, and it continues to function as a reservoir of memory and communal emotion.

The project sets itself the task of critically reflecting on the (un)presence of women in the (post)industrial cultural memory of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin region.