59
59 traces the end of the textile industry in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (now part of the Hauts-de-France region). The performance was developed following research work at the Archives nationales du monde du travail in Roubaix, and focuses on a single location in a single town, because it is emblematic: the Lainière factory. Its downfall can be summed up in a few key dates:
1957: "On the clock, 4:23pm. The Queen enters Roubaix. She drives a black Rolls. Along the way, a thousand smiles await her at the factory gates. Through the windows of her car, she sees the thousand faces of popular enthusiasm. At 4.58pm, the royal Rolls enters the La Lainière factory, Europe's largest textile group. It rolled down the 400-meter-long clock corridor. It's the first time an automobile has taken this route". (Souvenir album "Paris Match", - article "La visite de Sa Majesté Elizabeth II")
1970: La Lainière has over 7,000 employees.
Late 1999: La Lainière liquidated.
2011: La Lainière demolished. In less than thirty years, the number of people employed in the textile industry in Nord-Pas-de-Calais has fallen from 110,000 to 25,000.
Popular enthusiasm has waned somewhat.
Cover photo: 59 ©Agnès Butet
