GREAT HORNU SITE

Le Grand Hornu was born in 1810, after the purchase of the coal mine located on the site. The purchaser, Henri De Gorge, nurtured the dream of a thriving coal-mining business, and quickly embarked on a renovation project. Under the impetus of architect Bruno Renard, the site became a functional and majestic industrial complex with warehouses, construction workshops, stables and foundries. It also houses a dormitory, school, library, dance hall, hospital, public baths, village hall and stadium. By creating a veritable industrial and social complex, the great mining directors were to revolutionize workers' housing: workers' houses and the boss's castle rub shoulders, all needs are catered for within the estate, hygiene is supervised and, icing on the cake, access to culture provides entertainment for all. In this way, the big bosses ensured a healthy and protected workforce, as well as lambs ready to go to work without complaint at a time when trade unions didn't exist.

A visit to the site gives an idea of the living conditions of the workers who lived there in those days. The site and mines remained in operation until 1954. Re-used after the closure of the colliery, the site is now the property of the province of Hainaut and home to two different cultural associations: CID, whose work focuses on design, heritage and applied arts, and MAC's, the Musée des arts contemporains de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, dedicated entirely to contemporary art. Throughout the year, these two structures offer the public major international temporary exhibitions, as well as a wide range of activities for all ages. The site has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2012.

When it was created, MAC's was the first major contemporary art museum in Wallonia. It was created in the Maison des Ingénieurs. A listed building with enormous volumes, it lends itself particularly well to large-scale exhibitions and especially to installations of a certain size. As a result, the eye is drawn both to the beauty of the architecture (note the strange original inclined staircases) and to the works on display.

The CID, as design is obliged to do, exhibits pieces of applied art, works which therefore have a certain function rather than simply being beautiful in themselves. It has taken over the former barns and stables.