Editorial

“Firwat eng Zeitung?”

Why produce a magazine – another new print item, at a time when the “material world” is in crisis? Because we are convinced that certain values, feelings and content are better conveyed on actual paper, with inks you can smell and with help of a broadsheet imprint which has no need of an internet connection or electricity to read it. The periodical we want to offer you is a document to read and reread, to archive, to tape to the wall, to cut out to make collages from it, and above all to be shared without restraint…

For our association, beyond these motivations, our focus is clearly on promoting the actions taken by FerroForum: the projects completed, the work sites in progress, the multiple experiences associated with the events programme in the central workshop and the positive impacts that our actions can have on the local area, on our audiences and our partners.

It reflects the desire to put the spotlight on our partner actors and the specialist structures of the networks of the industrial culture, the craftsmanship and the arts associated with iron. And it is also valuing the industrial archives (of the FerroForum Ressourcerie and those of the partners), by emphasising the iconographic documents that lend themselves to “investigation” for insiders or by celebrating these documents, often unpublished, by making them accessible to the general public, thanks to detailed reproduction.

Fe magazine, above all, values what is human: putting the emphasis on the women and men of iron, on their achievements, their experiences and their anecdotes, but above all on their “savoir-fer”, their knowledge of iron and iron-making, that is the basis of our project. With the aid of this accessible and outreaching medium, we are passing on our holistic approach to the industrial culture of iron and iron-making, without fearing to tread new paths and to retain a critical spirit.
In short, these freshly-printed pages you are holding in your hands are the expression of our multiple reasons for forging human connections between enthusiasts of the world of iron, to bring their story/stories together and to shift the dial to keep the flame alive!

Misch Feinen, November 2023