Art for Luxembourg employees
This summer, creativity invaded our steel plants of Differdange and Rodange. Luxembourg artists wanted to express their love for the industry that forged their country.
The pride of Luxembourg’s industrial heritage
Since the evening of July 28, a new bird has settled on top of a hill near the church of Rodange. From this promontory, it observes with a kind eye the steelworkers, the ballet of trucks entering and leaving and the live rolling mills of our Rodange site.
This new inhabitant, certainly lifeless but not without soul, was created by Bettina Scholl-Sabbatini, Luxembourg artist. We then notice that its wings, which will unfortunately never allow it to fly, are covered with numerous slices of grooved rails which constitute each of its feathers. Rolled in the nearby ArcelorMittal factory, these grooved rails pay tribute to the factory workers able to obtain this quality of rail. Grooved rails are intended for trams and have been developed for several years in Rodange, worthy representatives of the permanent development of our sites in the Grand Duchy.
The giant owl was assembled by the Guy Gardula workshops in Ehlerange, under the direction of Jean-Luc Juncker.
A few miles from Rodange, again in the Minett region, another artwork is appearing in one of our largest steel sites in the country. One artwork ? Rather, five gigantic urban frescoes covering entirely the cooling towers of the Differdange plant.
This monumental project is the logical continuation of the initiative of the municipality of Differdange wishing to develop art in urban spaces. And nothing is like bringing together the greatest local urban artist and the industry that has made the city famous since the turn of the 20th century. The cooling towers then appeared as an ideal playground for Alain Welter and his team. In addition to being gigantic canvases, the towers overlook the city and allow the art to be seen for miles around, by passers-by but also by the ArcelorMittal employees. You can already read on one of the towers the word "Minettsdapp" accompanied by colorful miners, trains and industrial buildings and retracing some scheme of the steel’s transformation. These giant canvas are a beautiful tribute to the industrial past of the region.
Alain Welter is a Luxembourgish street artist. At the age of 27, he has already been able to build his reputation as a talented artist with his many works to the delight of visitors strolling in the streets of the capital and the major cities of the Grand Duchy.
He and his team are doing a titanic job to cover the towers with a thousands colors. The work will be completely accomplished early September after 2 months of work, up to 6 days a week and 10 hours a day of graffiti.
To follow the latest news on this artwork, follow Alain Welter on Instagram @alain_welter..