Ondřej Durczak (CZE)

The lecture is centred on the photographic documentation of the industrial and cultural heritage of the Ostrava-Karviná coalfield throughout its history. The author has been mapping this topic for many years and personally photographs former coalmining sites and facilities. His project resulted in the publication of Vzhůru do dolů!, a photographic book ,which has garnered significant interest. Remnants of mining facilities are apparently exciting and appealing to many of us. In recent decades, they have often been transformed into cultural monuments. We are also fascinated by outdated and decaying industrial monuments, as they combine beauty with ugliness in a peculiar way. The lecture will convey the atmosphere of the singular world of coalmining.