Conclusion of Jean-Michel André’s artist residency with a balloon release in Grenay

The Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin is situated in the North of France, lying at the western extremity of the coal seam of continental Europe. On a larger scale, the coal that can be found here belongs to the deposits that stretch from Columbia to the Appalachian Mountains in the United States, from southern Ireland to the Ukraine, and between Kazakhstan, China and India. The Nord-Pas de Calais coalfield is among the largest in Northwestern Europe, second only in size to that of the Ruhr in Germany.
One of its defining features as a major coalfield is that it is entirely below ground: 2 billion tonnes of coal were extracted between 1720 and 1990, from 100,000 km of galleries via 600 shafts. It is 120 km long, 12 km wide and 1.2 km deep.