Catalogus Master Photograhy 2014

Angel de la Rubia Diana Tamane Bastiaan van Aarle Marie-Charlot Vleminckx Paleizenstraat / Rue des Palais 70 1.0 km 11 min Station Brussel Noord / Gare Bruxelles Nord 230 m 2 min

TAG city Karel Rogier Passage / Place Charles Roger

Master Photography EXHIBITION LUCA School of Arts Sint-Lukas Brussel

LAY-OUT Marie-Charlot Vleminckx

INDEX

Introduction Liesbeth Decan

I. The Sky under Franco Angel de la Rubia II. You can’t have me for real Diana Tamane III. Waterlijn Bastiaan van Aarle IV. Groeten uit de vallei (Greetings from the Valley) Marie-Charlot Vleminckx

INTRODUCTION Liesbeth Decan

Four young artists exhibit together in TAG City in Brussels. Their work is very disparate, yet what they have in common is a fresh, authentic search for ways to deal with reality, their surroundings, their pasts, presents and even futures, particularly through the medium of photography.

In the work of Angel de la Rubia memory is the basic concept. By means of various media— drawings, castings, archival documents, family pictures as well as photographs taken by himself—he examines how his personal family history is interwoven with the political history of his native country, Spain. Special emphasis is laid on what role photographs play in the transmission of these histories, on how photography both incites and limits our memory of events.

Also in the work of Diana Tamane photography is a means to remember, as well as to accept and understand pieces of life—her life, but maybe yours too. Colorful pictures conduct the viewer on a poetic journey through the everyday, guided as well by the artist’s voice telling personal stories that animate and connect the pictures. Through the loose associations between the images and the spoken narrative Tamane indicates in a delicate way the human search for a comforting place in the world.

Fascinated by environmental science, Bastiaan van Aarle did a photographic project departing from the proposition that, if all ice on earth would melt, the sea level would be situated about 65 meters higher than it is nowadays. By combining black-and-white landscape photographs with a line, which is drawn on the glass that protects the picture and which indicates the prospective sea level, he brings this disastrous futuristic view to the viewer’s attention.

To Marie-Charlot Vleminckx the landscape often referred to by her as ‘het schone land’ (the beautiful land) - is a platform to execute simple but very precise acts. Packed with some carefully selected tools (like a saw, a knife, a tripod, a camera) she takes a walk, chooses a spot that is suitable for the action she has in mind (for example, sawing a piece of wood off a tree-stump), and finally performs the act.

Transported to the gallery space by means of photographs and video recordings, the ‘useless act’ becomes meaningful as it communicates about an uncommon simplicity and concentration.

Without any doubt each of these four projects, which were developed in the Master Photography at LUCA School of Arts – Campus Sint-Lukas Brussel, embodies the beginning of a burgeoning oeuvre that will surprise us with many more insights into our daily environment and the world outside.

Liesbeth Decan Brussels, June 2014

Angel de la Rubia

Spain, 1981

The Sky under Franco

‘The Bureau of Exile’

Mixed Media, variable dimensions

TUTORS

Els Opsomer Marie-Pascale Gildemyn

My work takes foundation on documentary photography and its nature of trace and visual witness to events. I incorporate other elements such as drawing or text, in order to expand my poetic and communicative possibilities; and the purpose is always one, even if the subjects are multiple. By examining the aftermath and present of the wars in the ex-Yugoslavia, the afterlife of monuments in post-soviet Europe or the articulation of my own family’s story within the recent history of Spain, I question constantly the relationship of the individual and its historical context.

The works here presented are my three most recent formalizations of an ongoing concern and research about unresolved issues of the recent past that haunt my country today. Democracy was re-established in Spain in 1978, but four decades of authoritarian dictatorship, and the Civil War preceded it, left deep wounds in a yet divided society that the Transitional process could not or did not want to fully satisfy. Years have passed, but some of these ghosts have not been re-examined or rendered justice.

In the installation “To kill the one who fishes in calm waters” I disclose a relatively unknown episode of Francoism: the daring and unaccomplished attempt at killing the Dictator from a small plane flying from France to San Sebastian.

This is my homage to Laureano Cerrada, an anarchist revolutionary that after fighting in the French Resistance devoted his life restlessly to modify the course of Spanish History.

“13.383 days of Dictatorship” is a reflection on what a family album cannot show. These witnesses of intimate life and celebrations can only give us subtle clues about the historical context that determine them through its constrictions, morals and silences.

“The Bureau of Exile” is a poetic approximation at the displaced and problematic notion of belonging that defines the condition of exile.

Approximately 220.000 people, half of the initial refugees from the Spanish Civil War, established themselves permanently in foreign countries, and many others would join until 1975. Under these circumstances, I imagine a topography of the homeland as being only possibly described by a wall crack.

“Personal attacks are effective to the extent that the victim monopolizes powers. Killing a constitutional king through a plot and not through a revolution does not change anything except for his heir. But if someone had eliminated Hitler in 1939, who could say that his death would not have been good for Europe? When we tried to assassinate Franco in 1948 we were convinced that we would have completely changed the History of Spain. At that time Franco had not yet managed to legitimize his system” Laureano Cerrada ‘To Kill the one who Fishes in Calm Waters’ Mixed media, variable dimensions.

Diana Tamane Latvia, 1986

You can’t have me for real

TUTORS

Ana Torfs Maarten Vanvolsem

Excerpts from the video: A foreign body arriving to a new city, it did not seem to exist. And then, little by little, as a developing photograph, becoming part of something, belonging once again.

From day to day walking the same streets, looking for references, looking for water. Her stories were condensed at the bottom of river, they were moving smoothly, transforming with flow. Water was fluid and blue, cold and transparent, wavy and deep, but also reflecting. On the surface, she saw reflections of memory, but it wasn’t her memory, it was someone else’s.

The European Union must demonstrate convincingly that is important to us, and what values we stand for, he said. [...]

In the park she would look for green, she would take a picture of green almost with anger. It was one of the cities where she used to live while waiting for spring. [...]

Skin, skin, flesh, skin, flesh, flesh, skin as an information gathering device. How often have you heard “You can’t have me for real”?

[...]

[...]

It is almost like a non-place, it is a bit like everywhere, a bit like Paris, a bit like Berlin, a bit like Istanbul, but it is like nowhere.

The planes are floating slowly dividing the sky into a tic-tac-toe, nevertheless the sound accompanying them moves quickly enough (343 m/ sec.) chasing and overtaking her in her daily routine. She doesn’t like planes. She prefers to stay on her own feet.

Wandering between those spaces she dissolves.

You said attachment, but attachment to what?

She would prefer to keep a distance.

We have one-hour difference, but you know it already. [...]

In those days it was rainy in Riga. They said 54 people died. They said the roof caved in at 17:41 local time. The collapse occurred during peak shopping hours. Eyewitnesses said the roof collapsed over the checkout counters, where many people were waiting to pay.

Did you forget? Keys? Mobile? Camera? PIN code?

To write an e-mail? Your promise? Your future?

One day looking for new roads she get lost in google maps never finding her way back.

Bastiaan van Aarle

Belgium, 1988

Waterlijn

TUTORS

Frank Uyttenhove Steven Humblet

The steady rise of the sea level is an often-reoccurring subject in our society. We hear about it on the radio, read about it in the newspaper or magazines and see documentaries of it on television. These representations of what is going to happen always look far away from us. If it already happens, than it happens at the North or South Pole, but definitely not in Belgium.

The project “Waterlijn� (Waterline) wants to change this. It brings the subject to the Belgians.

What is going to happen to Belgium when al the ice around the world would melt? Scientists say that the sea level would rise with 65 meters or to say it differently: half of Belgium would be under water. This drastic rise however is currently not visible. It is a n idea of the future that has not yet been fulfilled. Hence, we cannot photograph it.

This search of representing a future in photographs lead to the use of a line, which is drawn on the glass of the frame and represents the sea level. This artificial element in the image does not only represent the sea level but also has another purpose. It plays with the idea of the reality factor of images. Images work on the thin line between reality and fantasy. It represents reality but it excludes elements like sound, or the surroundings, which we (the viewers) have to fill in with our fantasy. By adding this line, I guide the viewer to imagine something specific within the image.

The landscape transforms by using their mind.

Marie-Charlot Vleminckx Belgium, 1991

Groeten uit de vallei

(Greetings from the Valley)

TUTORS

Aglaia Konrad Liesbeth Decan

When I come to the path, I take a right towards the valley. Here it is more quiet, but also colder. I hear horses grazing in a meadow along the path. A bit further, I will reach the piece of land I want to call mine.

I climb a rock, which reflects the morning sun. I know I’m almost there.

Besides the very impressive landscape, there is nothing much to see. The sound of the horses is replaced by the sound of water coming from the valley, although I can’t see it.

The images I make, are used as documents. Small actions or interventions with found materials and manmade constructions are filmed and photographed.

The settings are mostly well chosen spots in nature, which also play a special role throughout my work.

Video, a new medium for me, is often used for screenshots afterwards. This way I can concentrate on the act of making, without having to think about the pictured result. The actions that I portray are mostly useless but they are carried out with such care and concentration that they become valuable for a moment.

At the same time they reflect a certain kind of atmosphere, which in my eyes can refer to a nomadic way of living.

In contrast to the videos, which demonstrate the act of making, the pictures merely show the raw material.

Before I leave home, I always make a small list of things I have to take with me. On the one hand in order not to forget anything and on the other hand to define the piece of land and the action.

materiaal

mei 2014 nagels hamer statief camera videocamera These small lists are part of the process, the process of making, which leads to the depicted shapes and objects and which constitutes the actual work.

When I return to the village I come across the horses again, where a man is sitting in his car. I say hello and I feel he is still looking at me when I walk away.

He is probably wondering where I’m coming from so early in the morning.

Maybe it was his piece of land.

materiaal januari 2014

zaag zakmes statief

camera I

camera II videocamera

Master Photography 2013 - 2014 LUCA School of Arts - Campus Sint-Lukas Brussel

TUTORS Els Opsomer (Coördinator) Liesbeth Decan Marie-Pascale Gildemyn Steven Humblet Aglaia Konrad Ana Torfs Frank Uyttenhove Maarten Vanvolsem

STUDIO VISITS-LECTURESP O R T F O L I O V I E W I N G S b y: Mieke Bleyen (Art Historian, KU Leuven) Dirk Braeckman (Artist) Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau (De Witte Raaf) Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin (Artists) Xavier Canonne (Director Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi) Eric Dupont (Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris) Daniella Géo (Curator) Martin Germann (Curator SMAK, Ghent) David Heilbich (Artist) Helena Kritis (Curator Beursschouwburg) Ulrich Loock (Art Historian, Curator) Jan Mot (Jan Mot Gallery) Joachim Naudts (Curator FoMu, Antwerp) Thomas Ruff (Artist) Erik van der Weijde (Artist) Els Van Riel (Artist)

J U R Y - 18th of June 2014 Philip Aguirre y Otegui (Artist) Martin Germann (Curator SMAK) Tina Schulz (Artist, Writer)

ONTWERP POSTER

Maud Van Haegenborgh & Marie-Charlot Vleminckx