Ressourcerie asbl

The project

FerroForum, the cultural third place located in the former central workshop of Metzeschmelz, consists of three complementary pillars: the workshop, the refreshment area, and the Ressourcerie. As the collection of materials, objects, and specific documentation quickly gained significant dimensions, it became clear that not only should these resources be managed, but also integrated visibly within the overall project.

At Ressourcerie, we invite the public to absorb the thoughts, values, and lifestyles of the industrial era in Luxembourg and the Greater Region through the world of steelmaking. Beyond collecting and preserving objects, it is mainly their (re)contextualization in the past, present, and future, as well as fostering public discourse, that we promote.

Countless precious treasures lie dormant in the archives and private collections of former workers and employees of ARBED. They risk being lost when the person passes away and the family does not know what to do with them. Ressourcerie is the ideal place to host and highlight these resources, while providing professional care to maintain the authentic traceability of these resources.

Implementation

During the cultural year in 2022 and in line with FerroForum's programming, we were able to inaugurate spaces dedicated to the various aspects of archiving: the library (documentation, magazines, books, plans, and charts), the material archive (iron, steel, associated materials), and the warehouse displaying objects (tools, spare parts, curiosities).

Before being able to display all these utensils, one challenge was the fragility of the context and the corresponding objects: the content, the stories told by the collected objects and materials, or donations from individuals are becoming increasingly rare, as are testimonies from emblematic people of the Schmelz, who are an endangered species.

In the factory, during and after work, by living experiences together or sharing stories, we noticed that culture and human beings are at the heart of our project.

Moreover, the place – a hall from 1913, now classified as industrial heritage – lacks the necessary atmospheric conditions for professional archiving. Therefore, we undertook several attempts to urgently preserve the objects by relocating them to a drier place and set our priorities based on the precarious situation. In such a project, where everything is still in the making, priorities must be regularly adapted, and exchange between participants is essential to initiate such a project.

Objective

Ressourcerie can become an archive accessible to the general public, a space for knowledge exchange, a collector and distributor, and not a private collection destined to disappear. We aim to attract a broad public to this very special place to offer them an experience outside of the everyday and allow for identification with the history of the Grand Duchy and the Greater Region.

We work urgently to prevent this heritage from disappearing, driven by a passion for the lived stories of people and the materials and objects typical of the steel industry. In the long term, our goal is to manage inventories and initial preservation efforts, and to create an archive/collection representative of the Metzeschmelz site that integrates into the peculiarities of the FerroForum project and its values.