1 An Gratuit

Katharina Pöhlmann

Katharina Pöhlmann recently completed a photographic project addressing the changes in the former thriving industrial cities in the province of Liège in Wallonia, Belgium. It’s an area in which you clearly sense the differences between rich and poor, old and new, the urge to hold on to traditions and the familiar, and the search for a new identity.
Only fifty years ago, Wallonia had highly developed and advanced industries, was forward thinking, and wealthy. But as the market overcame more and more boundaries, Wallonia clung to its past and became a victim of globalisation. The dream of an everlasting industrial paradise collapsed and Wallonia became impoverished, old, and dark.
Now, a new utopia has arisen: a Marshall Plan and financial support from the European Union is to provide new impulses. But as the new utopia becomes reality, what does the future hold? Will it bring the long-desired improvement?