Lecture
The CID is particularly pleased to welcome Caroline Lamarche as part of Europalia España. Originally from Liège, the author, a finalist for the 2025 Prix Goncourt, spent her childhood in Spain, where her father worked as an engineer for the family business, La Royale Compagnie Asturienne des Mines, whose history she unfolds in her remarkable 2021 narrative, L’Asturienne. She traces the saga of a family—her own—that appeared in Liège at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and became a pioneer in zinc metallurgy in the Spanish province of Asturias. Traversing an era that heralds large-scale capitalism and its accompanying inequalities, she recounts the work and daily lives of these adventurers, at the forefront of a Europe still nurturing dreams of expansion. The strong personalities she portrays, the female voices she highlights, and the homage to her father, who opened the archives to her, make her the enlightened heir to a fascinating and cosmopolitan family legend. The living witnesses she interviews challenge the narrative and question its hidden facets, which she conveys with lucidity, sincerity, and a touch of humor, conscious of being caught between two worlds. The history of the Spanish mining industry intersects with that of Wallonia and will certainly resonate with the collective and emotional memory of Hainaut.
Caroline Lamarche’s presentation of this family epic, illustrated with archival documents, will be followed by a discussion with Mario Bango, an Asturian journalist who has worked for print media (La Voz de Avilés, La Voz de Asturias, La Nueva España, El País) as well as Spanish radio and television (RTVE). Author of several books on Asturias, he is currently the Belgium correspondent for La Nueva España.
January 18, 2025, at 4:00 PM
Price: €15 (€5 reduced rate) - reservations
The lecture will be followed by a friendly reception and a book signing session.
Those who wish can join a guided tour of the exhibition Patricia Urquiola. Meta-morphosa with Marie Pok, co-curator of the exhibition and director of the CID, at 3:00 PM.