Fossil
© Álvaro LaizFossil analyzes, documents and show the evolution of the decaying coal miners basins in northern Spain.
The name of the project refers both to the fosilized minerals from the
Carboniferuous period and the fossilization process the mine industry is, paradoxically, experiencing.
Since the end of XIX century the coal industry has meant much more than a business but a way of life in Northern Spain. Many villages and cities have grown around the mines and now they are facing their extinction.
Through an almost arqueological approach this project runs through the fosilized remains of the Carboniferous plants which originated the coal deposits, to the faces of the protagonists of this vanishing way of life or their daily life tools, which nowadays can be considered as collector ́s items.
In one hand Fossil documents the change economic paradigm which has declared as unviable the mining industry and in the other defends its cultural importance. Coal was once the main economic source in Northern Spain and now it seems to be condemned to oblivion. Fossil expects to recover and reclaim its legacy
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