My research into the theme started
was to discover what enormous quanti-
about and force the 'lower' members of
from my interest in clichés and how
ties of the same kind of pictures had
the family into free labor, athome as well
they are constructed. A cliché, in short,
been produced. Picture after picture,
as in the world at large. In the meantime,
is an image of a group of people that
somebody had been put in a frontal and
Western powers were using excessive
is constructed by a dominant group,
a profile position, naked, often in front of
violence in the colonies. Industrial and
in the formation of which the people
a white screen.
political leaders, scientists and colonial
portrayed have had no influence, no
personnel joined forces to convince
A brief history
decisive power. My first steps into this topic were about the portraying of men-
public opinion of the desirability of this huge economic undertaking.
tal illness in feature films, for my master's
This same kind of image was portraying
Anthropology, still a young science, and
dissertation in communication sciences.
Africans, Aboriginals, North and South
its anthropometric branch, were called
Ever since, I have been sensitive to the
American Indians, Inuit, Ainu... Many
in to help establish this 'family' order;
recognition and scrutinizing of clichés,
photographs were taken in Europe dur-
measurements of skulls had to provide
be it about women, or artists, or poor
ing world exhibitions and human zoos:
proof that the white male was the smart-
or queer people, or the inhabitants
the people portrayed were brought out
est – from the rather naive reasoning
of Brussels and their 'dirty, dangerous
of their cages into the photographic stu-
that a larger brain size indicated more
and poor' city, as seen by more
intelligence. The method was
powerful groups in other regions
discredited when scientists found
of Belgium. On this last item, I
Aboriginals and Africans with larger
spent ten years leading an artis-
brains. The premise itself – that
tic organization countering the
white man was the most intel-
clichés about the Bruxellois with
ligent – was not discredited. The
their actual stories . The unjust
rise of photography was welcomed.
depiction of my city brought forth
Being more precise than drawings,
my first stop-motion movie, Lost
it would help study and define
1
and Found (2013) .2
Self portrait. Antje Van Wichelen. 2011
'types' of colonial Others. The influential leader of the Société
From 2010 onwards, I started look-
dio. Other people were photographed in
Anthropologique de Paris, Paul Broca
ing into the most powerful clichés
their colonized countries.
(1824-1880) wrote in his Instructions
ever created: those about the colonial
The photographs have been produced
générales pour les recherches anthro-
'Other'. Researching at quai Branly on
in Victorian times, mostly between 1860
pologiques (1865) :
the exhibitions of humans in Europe, I
and1880, a time during which Western
stumbled upon the photographic series
science was obsessed with classification
that went with it, specifically the col-
(of nature, plants, organisms). The same
lections of Le Prince Roland Bonaparte
époque gave birth to the dominant
that are discussed elsewhere in this
imperialistic ideology; the human being
issue. The images struck me as shameful,
was to be seen in the 'family of man' – a
embarrassing, and shocking from a con-
scale of values (from which women were
temporary point of view, but even worse
absent) that put the white heterosexual
1 Bruxelles nous appartient – Brussels belongs to us: www.bnabbot.be 2 Trailer on www.vimeo.com/antjevanwichelen/lostandfoundtrailer
89
male at the top of the family. He thus received power over the rest of the family and could freely steal from, decide
On reproduira par la photographie: 1) des têtes nues qui devront toujours, sans exception, être prises exactement de face, ou exactement de profil, les autres points de vue ne pouvant être d’aucune utilité ; 2) des portraits en pied, pris exactement de face, le sujetdebout, nu autant que possible, et les bras pendants de chaque côté du corps. Toutefois, les portraits en pied avec