Francesca COMUNE
Aubane FILEE
Lilly LULAY
Juliet MERIE
Pascal SGRO
Antonin WEBER
archipel_1
January 12 - March 31, 2024
archipel_1
From January 12 to March 31, 2024, Contretype is presenting the second edition of the archipel project, a highlight of our new artistic program. The aim of the archipel exhibition is to support emerging photography in Belgium, and more specifically in the Brussels and French-speaking regions.
Contretype defines itself as an art center, and one of its missions is to promote the discovery and visibility of new means of expression, as well as to dedicate part of its budgets to the production of new works. Whether through exhibitions, residencies, editions or any other action, Contretype positions itself as a place for experimentation, as a professional point of reference for artists, and as a dynamic player in the cultural ecosystem in Brussels and Belgium.
archipel is a recurring project every January. And it’s with archipel that Contretype is taking part in the Photo Brussels Festival, which for this edition runs from January 25 to February 25, 2024. For archipel_1, six photographers under the age of 40 have been selected by a jury of experts for the richness and quality of their research. Photo, video and installation are the means they have chosen to speak of their relationship with the world, between documentary testimony and poetic approach, intimate resonances and confrontation with societal issues, questions of gender and flow of images. Each artist develops his or her own aesthetic and formal choices, and Contretype offers each of them the opportunity to invest his or her own space within its walls, so as to be able to present his or her work in the most appropriate way. Thus, much more than an exhibition, archipel is a series of 6 hangings, a spotlight on current emerging creations on the Belgian scene, in the field of contemporary photography and image. The aim is to provide a (partial!) snapshot of what’s happening here and now in the world of images, to show how the image addresses the world, through a range of singular approaches.
Of the 93 applications received, the 6 winners of archipel_1 are :
• Francesca COMUNE
• Aubane FILEE
• Lilly LULAY
• Juliet MERIE
• Pascal SGRO
• Antonin WEBER
The committee of experts convened by Contretype to select them, which is renewed in part each year, was composed of :
• Emmanuel D’AUTREPPE, author and teacher (ESA Saint-Luc Liège), exhibition organizer, contributor to L’image sans nom and Editions du Caïd
• Jean-Marc BODSON, photographer, photography critic for La Libre and independent curator
• Olivier GEVART, art collector and Director of the Été 78 space
• Olivier GRASSER, Director of Contretype
• Anne LACOSTE, Director of the Institut pour la Photo, Lille
• Juliette ROUSSEL, President of Contretype
• Marcel TOP, artist-author in the field of photography, winner of archipel_0 in 2023
Once again this year, the works of the 6 artists present a mapping of the concerns of an era and the representations they inspire.
The winners
She divides her time between Brussels and Frankfurt. Her work has already been widely exhibited internationally and is presented for the first time in Brussels. It is built on an analysis of the media and image flows that interface between the private and public spheres. Digital Dust series can be defined as a default self-portrait, constituted of the accumulation of all the images stored on her smartphone over the course of a year. It is an organized amalgam of fragmentary, semi-transparent images. She questions the subjectivity of individual memory in the face of technologies of recognition and identification, inviting the viewer to look beyond the screen.
Aubane FILEE Nous sommes légitimes
A graduate of ESA Saint-Luc in Liège, and currently studying cinema at INSAS in Brussels, Aubane FILEE is developing a body of work of a political and militant nature. For archipel_1, she is presenting the multimedia installation Nous sommes légitimes, halfway between photo and video, which deals with sexual assault and aims to give a voice to victims who are often ignored. Her choice of medium depends on the message to be shared. For her, it is about “creating to free oneself from repressed affects, (un)conscious conflicts, traumatic events. »
Francesca COMUNE No one can move this house
A Neapolitan by birth and former student at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, is pursuing a research project that is both documentary and poetic, and could be likened to an archaeological approach. She observes the layers of history, human activity and landscape that make up the environment in which she grew up. This tangle of layers and outcrops is reflected in an installation, No one can move this house, which visitors are invited to walk through, a kind of architecture or reading grid where they can multiply their points of view and perceptions.
Juliet MERIE Hosted By Red Dust
She presents a body of work between photography and literature, questioning the idea of «making place». Her proposal, Hosted By Red Dust, addresses the question of landscape. But it’s clear to her that this is not an echo of the so-called «pictorial» landscape (assimilated to gardens or landscaping), but rather of the question of place, site, environment. Through a relationship between photography and language, she invites us to establish and participate in the establishment of a space for living and contemplation. It seeks to create objects, texts and images that offer the possibility of spaces with mental, narrative and poetic properties.
Pascal SGRO Le Jardin du Lunch
He presents a series of photographs entitled Le jardin du lunch, taken in a supermarket cafeteria. He strives to capture the profound character of this place, to paint an image of its unique atmosphere. This place, unchanging if not obsolete, is a source of personal memories and emotions, as well as the scene of a humanity that Pascal SGRO views in a documentary way, with both tenderness and amusement. Rather like the famous TV show Strip Tease, Le jardin du lunch could be a documentary in which the commentator steps aside to let the protagonists of everyday life and intimacy speak for themselves.
Antonin WEBER Les Masculinités
Inspired by a reflection by feminist writer Virginie Despentes, this work is an ambitious sociological investigation into the question of masculinity. It questions our notion of masculinity through the intimate stories of men who try, in their own way, to deconstruct their gender or, on the contrary, to follow societal norms in order to «be real men». Antonin WEBER attempts to establish a dialogue between our different perceptions of masculinity.