'I'm not a victim or survivor... I'm just Gaynor, someone who enjoys her life' Echo 2 A new art project is aiming to change perceptions of Aberfan so that it is no longer always deemed a place of tragedy. CATHY OWEN talks to some of the villagers who took part...

Byline: CATHY OWEN

"IT shows me as I am today. Not as a victim or as a survivor. Just as Gaynor, someone who enjoys life."

This is the reason why mum-of-three Gaynor Madgwick is so delighted to have taken part in a new art exhibition that focuses on the people of Aberfan and how they have moved on from tragedy in the past 42 years.

Say the name of the Valleys village to anyone and immediately you think of the coal waste tip that slid down the mountainside on to the local primary school on October 21, 1966, killing 116 children and 28 adults.

Within hours of the terrible disaster, the village lost its privacy as the world's eyes descended upon it and have returned periodically ever since. Many villagers still find it difficult to talk openly about their loss, but a new exhibition on show at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff hopes to try to move on from those associations with disaster.

Gaynor, now 50, was eight when the disaster struck and she was trapped in her classroom.

She was rescued by her grandfather and spent three months in hospital with severe leg injuries. Gaynor lost her brother, Carl, seven, and one of her four sisters, Marylyn, 10, in the disaster.

"We were such a happy family," remembers Gaynor. "It all changed overnight, like a mist or a darkness coming over us. Nobody spoke about it or asked me how I was feeling. People showered us with gifts but there was no counselling. They thought we were all right but we weren't. I was too afraid to mention it in case I upset anyone. I used to go to bed sobbing my heart out and put my pillow over my head so as not to disturb my parents. I felt guilty that I had survived - I would have died to bring my brother and sister back."

Today, Gaynor still lives in Aberfan and the disaster has had a massive impact on her life, but it has not stopped her living her life to the full.

And when American artist Shimon Attie invited her to take part in a project that would help show how people have moved on from the disaster, she was more than happy to take part.

"For years I have been portrayed as Gaynor the victim or Gaynor the survivor," she explains. "But in this project I am pictured in a dress in my favourite colour red, relaxing on a chaise longue. I think it is a true reflection on me, a real girlie girl, who is vibrant and enjoying life. I am really pleased with the outcome because it shows me in a positive light and how I really am today, not as a victim or a survivor."

Gaynor, who has written a book about the disaster and its aftermath, said that her life turned around when Rhodri Morgan announced last year that the village would be awarded pounds 2m to spend on maintaining its cemetery and memorial garden.

"For me the money was a form of closure," she admits.

"And my parents felt like that too. I am a full-of-life, happy-go-lucky person and not a victim or a survivor and that is how I want to be seen. A lot of people in Aberfan clam up and don't want to talk about the disaster, but this project is different because it is a lot more positive and shows what goes on in a little cultural village in the Valleys."

Keith Anderson was the first villager that Shimon Attie approached about carrying out the project in 2006.

He is chairman of the village's Communities First Partnership and over the years there have been many requests to feature the village.

"Shimon was a bit different because he came to live in the village for three months, actually about five months on and off," said Keith who has lived in Aberfan since 1961.

"He approached the subject with sensitivity and gained people's trust, which I think is the main reason why so many people were willing to take part. The response he had was tremendous. Some people will still not talk about it, though. My wife wouldn't come down to the official launch, she lost a lot of family and still won't talk about it.

"But to me it is a way of helping to draw a line under the media spotlight. It is like we have opened up and told you all we can, now we would just like to be left alone."

For the project Shimon invited villagers into his studio and asked them to "perform" in their everyday roles - from traffic warden and former coal miner to male voice choir singers and gardeners - and he filmed them on an unseen, slowly-revolving stage.

"My aim was to create images that upend the historical archive of existing imagery and that complicates the conversation about a place such as Aberfan," says Attie.

"I wanted the piece to confound our expectations and projections onto what it means to be a 'victim' or a 'survivor' and to resist easy interpretation and sentimentality.

"Ultimately, I wanted to create an artwork that - at least in the realm of the imaginary - might help Aberfan take its rightful place as a Welsh village among other Welsh villages."

Aberfan NewViews of the Villagers is on showat the National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, until February 22

CAPTION(S):

DISASTER: Aberfan in 1966; SURVIVORS: Keith Anderson is chairman of the Aberfan's Communities First Partnership and, main picture, Gaynor Madgwick. Below, some of the pictures in the exhibition