Thomas Demand Grube, 1999

Grube refers to a mining disaster that took place in the Austrian village of Lassing on July 17, 1998. After the roof of an illegally mined shaft collapsed the mine filled with mud and water. The subsequent landslide created a large crater in the midst of the small village in which two houses were destroyed and 18 damaged. A 24-year old miner was trapped underground in a so-called Jausenkammer, a staffroom for the miners. His rescue ten days later was called the “Wonder of Lassing” in the Austrian press which widely covered the disaster and the rescue efforts in which all ten rescuers died, making it the gravest mining disaster in Austrian post World War II history.