Hangar presents MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade by Belgian photographer Charlotte Abramow.
MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade tells the story of a struggle, one man’s battle with illness and of a rebirth, carried by the love of a daughter. Somewhere between documentary storytelling and surreal tale, this visual and poetic narrative resonates as a timeless tribute from Belgian photographer Charlotte Abramow to her father, Maurice. For the first time, this intimate work takes the form of an immersive exhibition, presented at Hangar.
Maurice was the very first model Charlotte photographed in a studio. At 17, she already sensed that photography would guide her life, without imagining that her father would later become the heart of her first book. Published in 2018 thanks to the support of 777 contributors, MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade came to life after Maurice’s death, he would never see its release.
Seven years later, Charlotte Abramow revisits this project with renewed strength. Through this exhibition, she rekindles the memory of an extraordinary man: a doctor, a teacher, a Jewish child hidden during the war but above all, a father full of tenderness, wit, and imagination. Drawing from family archives, the exhibition unfolds a deeply human story, balancing humor and emotion.
Can we say Maurice’s life ended on a high note? If love is the measure, then surely, yes. Faced with illness and the aftermath of a post-anoxic coma, Charlotte transformed hardship into creation. Together, father and daughter invented a new language gestures, glances, silent complicity… Maurice’s gaze, captured by the photographer, becomes both mirror and messenger. He is the muse, she the artist. Together, they wove an intimate, enchanting, luminous tale.
MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade is the story of an unbreakable bond, of a love that refuses to fade. A story of transmission, of artistic revelation. Did Maurice know that in those suspended moments, between laughter and tears, his daughter was taking her first steps as an artist? And that by offering himself to her lens, he was passing on a treasure the gift of self-discovery, of creation, and of building a profoundly personal work.
Charlotte Abramow, born in 1993 in Brussels (Belgium), has been interested in images from a very young age. At 16, during an internship at the Rencontres d’Arles (France), she met Paolo Roversi (1947), an Italian fashion and portrait photographer. The following year, he wrote an article about her images entitled La fragilité et l’âme d’une guerrière published in Polka Magazine in 2011.
In 2013, Abramow moved to Paris to study at Gobelins, l’École de l’Image. She became interested in exploring the relationship with the body, women, and life stages by staging elements in an absurd way within a surreal world.
At 24, Abramow took charge of the visual direction of the project BROL by Belgian singer Angèle, for which she created all the photographs. During this artistic collaboration, she made her first steps as a director with La Loi de Murphy and Je Veux Tes Yeux. Later, she would also direct the music video Balance ton Quoi
In the autumn of 2018, her first book was published: MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade about her father’s illness (Éditions Fisheye), funded by 777 contributors on Kickstarter in 2016. At the same time, the photographer exhibited her series “They love Trampoline” at Paris Photo with the Galerie Fisheye in 2018.
Charlotte Abramow : MAURICE, Tristesse et rigolade
September 19 – December 21, 2025
Hangar, Brussels
Place du Châtelain 18 Kasteleinplein
1050 Brussels
www.hangar.art
