Unique – refers both to the uniqueness of the artworks, and to the research that led to their creation. The work of 21 artists provides at least as many original approaches. Photography is ubiquitous and everyone is a photographer. Everyone has a high-quality camera, and everything and everyone is photographed. But: every social development has a countermovement.
With the introduction ca 1890 of industrial cheap cameras and the rise of amateur photography, a group of amateur photographers countered this and began experimenting with a new visual language and new printing methods – the Pictorialists sought to connect with Symbolism. Around 1920, reproducibility was questioned – shouldn’t a work of art be unique? And wasn’t it young people who, around 2000, preferred the Lomo or the Polaroid instead of the camera of their mobile phone?
It is in this sense, then, that you can view the exhibition Unique. 21 photographers, half of them younger than 40 and based in Belgium, take on the perspectives of photography. They broaden the possibilities of analogue photography, glean what is useful in digital technology, experiment with non-silver processes, with glue and scissors, with dimensions, meaning, image frames and the retouching pen. The exhibition moves from one surprise to another – so it’s well worth seeing works by Nicolas Andry; Pepe Atocha; Sylvie Bonnot; Aliki Christoforou; Dana Cojbuc; Antoine De Winter; Gundi Falk ; Marina Font; Lior Gal; Audrey Guttman; Romane Iskaria; Morvarid K; Kíra Krász; Douglas Mandry; Alice Pallot; Raphaëlle Peria; Luc Praet; Anys Reimann; Stephan Vanfleteren; Laure Winants; Vincent Zanni!
It would lead us too far to go into all these artists’ works, hence we limit ourselves to 9 of them, a choice based on very diverse factors. Chaotic landscapes that literally break through the picture frame (Dana Cojbuc); research into the impact of toxic algae on the marine environment (and humans) ( Alice Pallot); the social position and perception of a woman of colour redefined in brutal collages (Anys Reimann); the need to reflect ourselves through artificial intelligence combined with the oldest photographic processes (Antoine De Winter); juggling the meaning of the word etiquette (rules of conduct), label (nameplate) and label (adhesive label) (Kíra Krász); the playful approach with image and technique to create sculptures (Audrey Guttman); poetic reflections on great natural disasters – or how to grasp life and death (Morvarid K); love for the fragile rainforest (Pepe Atocha); the almost pointless act of wanting to hold on to the of the past in a photographic image, and coming to terms with transiency (Vincent Zanni).
The Catalogue
The beautifully published catalogue comes highly recommended, both in terms of form and content.
A spiral binding has been chosen, and throughout the publication the layout plays with the size of the characters, the typography and the paper. The whole publication once again emphasises the concept of “unique”. In terms of content, the publication describes each of the projects, supplemented by a detailed biography of each artist. One criticism must be made: a few more images would have been welcome.
For those wishing to document some of the latest developments in photography, this book is indispensable. It can be ordered via Hangar’s e-shop, and further practical information can be found at the end of the contribution.
Pepe Atocha (PE, 1976), lives and works in Tarapoto, Upper Amazonia (PE). The subconscious of medicinal plants, 2023 – 2024
Plants communicate with each other and with their environment. They are not inanimate beings; they use light and chemical processes to feed, communicate, and interact with animals. Pepe Atocha’s approach to this particular universe, involves analog photography because, like plants, he uses light and chemical processes to achieve his goals.
In this series, Pepe Atocha worked with the flora of the Peruvian Amazon, merging each plant with its environment in double-exposure photographs, on which he intuitively intervenes: drawing points and/or lines symbolizing the movement of insects and the fluctuation of the chemistry they emit. The fact that we do not see it does not mean they do not exist; the visible is just a part of reality.
Text written in collaboration with Alejandro Castellote, exhibition curator.
Dana Cojbuc (RO, 1979), lives and works in Paris (FR). Strange place for sunrise, 2023-2024
What imprint remains of our memories once they have passed through the prism of time, subjectivity, and illusions? Strange place for sunrise was born from the desire to preserve the memory of a place, to play with presences as well as absences, to extend the sensory through the imaginary to reinvent an immersive walk, oscillating between reality and fiction.
This project takes root in the reality and materiality of a location in Romania, a place dear to the photographer. Dana Cojbuc intervenes on her works through drawing, extending and interpreting photography beyond the frame of the image and creating new connections between different spaces. The extension of reality through drawing allows viewers to enter the realm of interpretation and to extend the immersive work with their own imagination. The landscape becomes a sanctuary, an island of refuge and salutary isolation. In a desire to move beyond two-dimensionality to create a complete work, colored projections, like a cinema magic lantern, dress and move the work with blue reflections. Suggesting both the sky and the water, the blue light gives these scenes a magical and unreal aura, thus enhancing the experience of poetic contemplation offered by Strange place for sunrise.
Extract from a text by Éléonore Simon
Antoine De Winter (BE, 1985), lives and works in Brussels (BE). Followers, 2024
Followers is an exploration of image production and its emotional resonance, seamlessly intertwined with a reflection on the representation of the ego in the digital age. Antoine De Winter delves into themes of transience, humanity, and contradiction through photography, while probing the depths of image sanctification and ego in our current society.
Followers takes us on a temporal journey, inviting us to contemplate the origins of images and their contemporary production methods. By combining the generation of portraits through artificial intelligence with their transposition via ancient analog processes, Antoine De Winter bridges the gap between past and present. Followers series urges us to rethink the power of images, to evoke emotions, and to shape our perception of the world. It highlights the complexity of the relationship between image production and the iconic use of self-representations on social networks, while inviting us to meditate on their profound and often elusive impact on our understanding of ourselves and our reality.
Extract from a text by Éléonore Simon
Audrey Guttman (BE, 1987), lives and works between Paris (FR) and Brussels (BE). La femme 100 chambres, 2021-2023
« It’s a woman, alone, in a room. But is she, truly? Hard to say: she slips from one image to another, escaping as soon as one approaches. Her mischievous silhouette is imprinted on an old doily, then reappears, in profile, in an enigmatic collage.
She escapes from a photo session, leaving behind only a bright spot of light, then stretches out on a limestone rock that she reinvents as a bed. There she is, dancing: quickly, let’s capture the lively movement of her hair, on a paper left for a few moments in the sun. Through the keyhole, here she is again: is she grimacing with ecstasy or sorrow? Does she herself know? Look, a clock: it insists, yes, even time is malleable in reverie. In this game of hide-and-seek between shadow and light, between the image and its simulacrum, she plays and invites us to play with her. And to play with the very idea of reality, which is, perhaps, the only subject of photography. »
Morvarid K (IR, 1984), lives and works in Bordeaux (FR) and Berlin (DE). This Too Shall Pass, 2022-2023
Overwhelmed by the images of the fires in Australia in 2019 and 2020, Morvarid K felt the urgent need to go there. She saw static, silent, empty landscapes and noted the overwhelming absence of life. Begun in Australia in 2020 and continued in France in 2021 and 2022, the series This Too Shall Pass questions the complexity of human perception, the mechanism of adjustment that allows us to tame the brutal, the destructive, to make Thanatos bearable.
The project is divided into three phases: the persistence of the past which relates to the initial difficulty of accepting the destruction caused by fire; the trace of the present, the moment of realization and the desire to be as close as possible to the issue to better understand it; and finally, the weaving of the future, the moment when the subject slips into the background and our attention turns to other things, although the mega-fires persist. At the first sight of this devastated landscape, a kind of denial sets in, characterized by visual compensation, a reassuring retinal persistence replacing the black with green. A mental weaving that fades to reveal the real. It is then time to take stock of things, to collect a tangible trace through hands-on experience. Morvarid K collects the charcoal imprints of charred tree trunks by enveloping them with monochrome risographies of photographs taken on-site. The silent voice of the trees then merges with her photographic writing. Finally comes the time for the subject’s banalization, illustrated by the use of photographic fragments with burnt edges, representing living tree barks. In this corpus, this dense mass heralds and denounces the intensification of fires. The burnt edges and the gradual disappearance of the image in favor of an empty white space highlight the destruction of forests, as well as the fading of the subject in our minds. the series This Too Shall Pass © Morvarid K
Kira Krász (HU, 1995), lives and works in Hungary. Etiquette, étiquette, 2023-2024
Kíra Krász explores the mysterious relationship between etiquette (behavioral culture) and etiquette (label). Louis XIV, the French King, was the implementer of social etiquette, the decorum, in his court, everyone had to adhere to certain established rules. According to rumor, at the request of the gardener, the first etiquettes drew attention to the path to take in the garden to avoid stepping on the grass.
The table set by the Sun King was decorated with folded napkins. The servants masters in the art of folding learned to fold napkins in 25 different ways. This number 25 thus becomes a magical number in this work. In the first part of the project, it also corresponds to the number of images presented in the installation composed of printed etiquettes. Some aspects of the established social etiquette at that time are already obsolete, but others still govern our social life today.In the second part, the number 25 disappears as «etiquette» constantly evolves, shaping and adapting to life’s circumstances. Kíra Krász’s pastel-colored works embody this change; they are a representation of this transformation. While the 25 folds are all part of an old strict system, the crossbreeds are much less restrictive. They can be more rebellious and individualistic, echoing the traits of their forefather’s. Printing photographs of folded napkins on labels allows these structures to be deconstructed and mixed.
Alice Pallot (FR, 1995), lives and works between Paris (FR) and Brussels (BE). Algues maudites, essential photosynthesis, 2024
After the first chapter of the series Algues maudites, a sea of tears, Alice Pallot continues to focus on the environmental and health issues related to the proliferation of so-called toxic green algae in the Côtes-d’Armor region of France. In a new photographic and experimental installment, presented for the first time at the Hangar, Algues maudites, essential photosynthesis delves into climate change and thus the sunlight radiation, which is one of the main causes of the green algae proliferation in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc.
How to make visible the sun’s red radiation contributing to their growth? The photographer develops, on site, with the assistance of scientists from the University of Rennes 2, a setup of artificial lights revealing the sole red light spectrum of the sun used by the algae for their photosynthesis. Alice Pallot unveils a series of unique images of ecosystems threatened by algae decay, in a context where the environmental crisis has become a major issue. For 2 to 3 weeks, Alice Pallot grew algae cultures on photographic prints, a process that allows us to experience anthropogenic toxicity not visible in the natural environment, which is imprinted on the photographic print and becomes the substrate for the algae.
Anys Reimann (DE, 1965) lives and works in Düsseldorf. LE NOIRE DE…, 2023
Inspired by the female heroine of the film of the same name: La Noire de … from 1966 by the West African author, poet and director Ousmane Sembene. “In my version about the woman who sees no other way out than to reclaim her freedom and self-determination through suicide, she lets all the anger, resistance and her attitude be felt, refects and even appropriates ‘whiteness’, and rejects all certainty even with the male pronoun.” – Anys Reimann
INCARNAT (Love Circle), 2024
It’s about the complexity of intersectional experiences, of external attributions and/or fetishization, about drawing attention to gaps in western-centered cultural concepts and undermining a one-sided reading. Anys Reimann’s works oscillate between dissolution and personification. Unlike the term used in art history, she uses the technical term INCARNAT to describe the flesh-colored skin tone for all skin colors. Far from affiliations based on origin, genetic predisposition or the socialization of individuals, the focus is on fluid identity negotiations. Beyond personal characteristics and physical features and their ascribed significance, the focus is on the individual, as well as on becoming related to one another, being related and to sensitivity, intimacy, and physical closeness.
Grey, wet days turn into rainbow streams
that cut reality into pieces
into new bones for dreams
into stories with unheard speeches Bodies, structures that belong to nature
Growth, magic, new personalities images of where the bird had flown
and beings in bizarre postures
Anys Reimann
Vincent Zanni (CH, 1995) lives and works in Amsterdam (NL). La Maison, 2023
Vincent Zanni explores the potential of photography through a rigorous analog methodology. He combines traditional and contemporary techniques such as cyanotypes and wet collodion to highlight the importance of process and materials in his work. In his recent projects, La Maison and Sights of Unary, he examines the significance of family archives and memories, exploring the interaction between imagery and societal impact. By delving into his own family archives, he questions the concept of permanence in photography and explores its evolving nature.
Vincent Zanni prompts reflection on the ever-changing dynamics of memory, loss, and family heritage, pushing the boundaries of conventional practices. His experimental darkroom approach and exploration of family archives contribute to the ongoing dialogue about the transformative potential of photography in contemporary society. Through the materiality and changing nature of photography, he aspires to explore the relationship between images, memories, and the evolving structure of our lives. The conclusion of this research has taken the form of the four basins of La Maison, which receive four stages of mourning work on the artist’s grandmother’s house: the archives from 1920, his grandmother’s room, the emptied house seen from the inside, and then from the outside. A fifth stage will conclude the series: the destruction of the house in 2024. These visual testimonies fixed on gelatin and immersed in the basins remind us that memories, like the house, only hold for a time before disintegrating.
John Devos
Hangar Brussels : UNIQUE Beyond photography
till 8 June 2024
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The Catalogue Unique – Beyond photography is a softcover published by Hangar
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Limited edition 300
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172 pages
2024
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