REPORTING. Abandoned places, macabre discoveries and accidents… The unsuspected risks of urbex, a booming practice among teenagers

Urban exploration, or urbex, of abandoned places has been growing in recent years. People are putting themselves out there on social media and more and more young people are engaging in this practice without necessarily being aware of the risks.

“The very essence of exploration is to see what you don’t know. Quite often, in fact, these are places which are prohibited from access“, explains Guillaume Prugniel, photographer, videographer who has been practicing “urbex”, the urban exploration of abandoned places, for ten years. This practice is in full development, but it can be fatal, three young people have died in recent weeks. franceinfo went to Lorraine to explore what we call a mine pit, that is to say the surface installations which made it possible to operate a mine. It has been abandoned for almost 30 years.

“You see there, there are people passing by, we’re not going to hang around too much“. The first part of the urbex is infiltration, entering the site without being detected. Once inside, we discover very imposing red brick buildings with large broken windows, a lot of metal as well, a post-apocalyptic decor. “It’s the word that quite often describes the atmosphere that reigns in these places.confirms Guillaume Prugniel. And then you have this shot of nature taking back its rights“.

There are pieces of glass everywhere, Good shoes are better. To the right and left there are gaping holes in the ground. “Try not to move around if you’re not really paying attention to your surroundings“, he warns. We then arrive in the control room. “There is a very particular aspect which is reinforced by rust. You have moss growing in certain places, there are some plants there“, describe Guillaume Prugniel.

“What I like about the urbex is access to places that you don’t see elsewhere. There’s this side that’s a little bit out of time.”

Guillaume Prugniel, urbexor

at franceinfo

This “urbexer” is aware of the risks associated with this practice. “I think it does everyone good to talk about the risks you can run when you enter a place, whether in terms of the things you can breathe, the fragility of buildings. You have a responsibility to show good practices or at least not showing bad practices“, he insists.

In recent weeks, three young people have died while practicing urbex. A 14-year-old teenager died on May 15 after falling around ten meters from the roof of an abandoned factory in Cambrai, in the North. In Unieux in the Loire, on April 27, a 17-year-old girl died in similar circumstances. And then in Lyon, a 17-year-old high school student killed himself by falling from the dome of the Hôtel-Dieu where he wanted to photograph the sunrise. “This practice has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly among young people.“, analysis Aude Le Gallou, doctor in geography, who completed a thesis on the urbex.

“SOn social networks, there are many videos from channels that feature “Exploits“with the appropriate quotation marks, of people who go to visit abandoned places“, she explains.

“It can create a desire to do the same among adolescents who are not necessarily aware of the risks.”

Aude Le Gallou, author of a thesis on urbex

at franceinfo

“The two teenagers who fell through a roof were not aware that it was a material that was fragile, that could not support their weight“, analysis Aude Le Gallou.

There is a lot of sensationalist content on social media. For example, a YouTuber recently filmed exploring a house where he discovered the body of a mummified man. Is this urbex? “For him, yes, it’s urbex. For other practitioners, it’s more really urbex or it’s urbex which reaches its limits in terms of ethics, respect for both places and people“, according to Aude Le Gallou.

Respect for places and people is all the more problematic when it comes to abandoned houses, pbecause some owners experience this intrusion very badly. This is the case of Anne who, with members of her family, owns a bastide in the south of France where she notably married. An urbexer entered and filmed the scene. “Not only does it enter the house, but it also diffuses. The word is a bit strong, but for me, it’s rape“, she says. And it is precisely to avoid these reactions that some people sometimes ask for authorization.

There is also “abandonment tourism” which is developing. In Berlin, a company offers, for around fifty euros, to visit abandoned places. In any case, this shows that these places that we can imagine useless or uninteresting, because abandoned, become attractive and beautiful, we are now even talking about a “aesthetics of contemporary ruin“.