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About the project "Aus Eisen"

martinefedermeyer

My family roots and their link to the iron ore industry in Luxembourg have been the starting points of the project, which englobes multiple areas: an extensive historical research; the extraction and making of ochre pigments using iron ore; the use of those pigments in paintings and an art installation based on my family photos. Paintings and installations will be exhibited in the Paul Wurth Hall in Fond-de-Gras, Differdange during summer 2024.


As a historian, and during my activity as a history teacher in Luxembourg I have always been interested in the industrial heritage of the country. Now, working as a visual artist, I’m able to combine that interest with my other passion, art. I can combine my historical research regarding my family roots in particular, and the lives of iron ore miners and steelworkers in general, with my art making.


Both my grand-parents’ families have been strongly influenced and shaped by the iron mining and steel making industry in Luxemburg.





My maternal grand-father Gino Rota was the son of Italian immigrants living in Oberkorn, and he worked with his father Giovanni Rota in iron ore mines, first in the Cockerill mine in Esch until 1954, and then in the Fond-de-Gras, in the Thillebierg mine in Differdange. Gino married Barbara Wolf in 1951, also a miner’s daughter, and the family had strong family links to another Italian immigrant family, the Possenti from Differdange. Practically all of the men in both families worked in the iron ore industry, either in the mines or in the HADIR steelworks in Differdange.




My paternal grand-father, Jean-Pierre Federmeyer worked as a foundryman for the company Paul Wurth in Hollerich, until he was conscripted by the Nazis in 1942. His Father Edouard Federmeyer as well as his two brothers worked as draughtsmen for Paul Wurth.


My upcoming exhibition in the Paul Wurth Hall in Fond-de-Gras consists of paintings depicting my renderings of the inside of iron ore mines as well as weathered machinery and industrial buildings. I have used iron ore rocks to make ochre pigments, which I then have used in my art. Alongside those 40 paintings, an installation of artworks relating to my family and their lives with and in the iron ore industry in Luxembourg in the 50s and 60s completes the exhibition.




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Contact:

Martine Federmeyer Gwynne
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
UK
 
email: martine.federmeyer@education.lu

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