Rising from its Ashes

The mineral resources found in the Cevennes, France, gave rise to both a pottery industry and intense mining. The mines released large quantities of heavy metals. On one of the sites, two species of plants subsisted that could draw these contaminants from the soil. An attempt was made to rehabilitate the polluted area with these plants, but if they are not harvested, the contamination remains. Anne Fischer’s up-cycling project ‘Rising from its Ashes’ turns this biomass into glazes that neutralise pollutants, linking the industrial past with the local pottery tradition to revitalise the region and its heritage.