At EXTRA FORT, a series of photography-themed evenings in Brussels, photographers are free to present their completed and ongoing projects to the public, to discuss their approaches and influences, music, cinema, video, news, dreams. Visitors are given the chance to discover the artists’ work and personalities. Vincen Beeckman is the organizer.
Tell us about the upcoming months of programming for EXTRA FORT.
Vincen Beeckman: Opening the season on January 29th will be the Belgian documentary photographer Colin Delfosse, perhaps best known for his work in the Congo. He will share the evening with Ivars Gravlejs, a provocative Latvian photographer whose compositions feature pornography and other subversive material. The two photographers are poles apart. That’s exactly what I find interesting about EXTRA FORT: the exploration of different worlds and breaking down the barriers between different styles of photography.
For example, on February 13th, we’ll have two photographers who work on rockabilly. What’s interesting is that neither of them studied photography in school. They’re amateurs who are coming to talk about their pictures. They don’t have any training, they haven’t published any books, and they haven’t taken the usual route to be exhibited in a gallery. It kind of “lightens the mood” before we get back to the work of so-called real photographers.
Other photographers on the program this season are Melchior Tersen, Agnes Prammer, Sandrine Lopez, Virginie Gouband and Léonard Pongo.
Do you mainly invite Belgian photographers?
There’s a good balance between Belgian and foreign photographers. We’ve got locals whose work we know but not necessarily what it’s like behind the scenes, and lesser-known foreign photographers who are like revelations for the public every time.
Are there also exhibitions?
The EXTRA FORT evenings came about because it’s so difficult to hold exhibitions at Recyclart. It’s a converted former railway station, so holding screenings and projections came naturally. There’s lots of things to see and show and discuss live. Photographers can talk about ongoing series, older ones, botched students projects, lost gems, whatever they like.
Read the full article in the French version of L’Oeil.
www.recyclart.be/fr/agenda?category=photographie
RECYCLART – BAR & CENTRE D’ARTS
Gare Bruxelles-Chapelle
25 rue des Ursulines
1000 Bruxelles
