Open pit mine

Technique: Indian ink on paper.
Exhibition available in several formats.

One day in October 2019, Emmanuel Henninger simply left Mulhouse, carrying his bundle, leads and pencils, heading for Germany.
From his six-month journey, he brought back dozens of drawings on themes dear to him: untouched and mysterious nature (the Urwälder), the destructive action of man on it and the titanic forms that result. Salt mountain of Kali, open-cast mines of Hambach or Garzweiler, the meticulous Indian ink frescoes of Emmanuel Henninger detail like a scalpel the exploitation "to the bone" of the environment and show how humans desert the places of their crimes.

The Hambach open-cast lignite mine in North Rhine-Westphalia is responsible for the destruction of one of Germany's last primeval forests and is a fortiori responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions across Europe. Coal, used since prehistoric times in cave paintings and excavated for 2,000 years, has become, in less than 200 years, the symbol of the industrial and polluting era.
Whether extracted or burned, its exploitation has devastating effects on the environment and the global climate. Coal mining hinders the development of many local populations, who are faced with a false choice between employment and health.