May 13–November 26, 2017
“You can constantly question my images: there are new stories in them every time”
–Dirk Braeckman
Working with analogue photography, Dirk Braeckman explores the boundaries of his medium and challenges photographic conventions. His work reflects on the act of viewing and the status of the image. His photographic prints show anonymous subjects from his immediate surroundings. Stripped of anecdote, the stories they suggest are entirely open. Intimacy and distance combine in Braeckman’s photographic images to make a private, secluded world.
Experiment is crucial to both the registration by the camera and the subsequent processing of the images in the darkroom. The exposure, manipulation and development of the negative and photographic paper consistently results in new and unique images. Grain, spots, cropping and flattening of perspective resist an immediate reading or interpretation of Braeckman’s work. The camera’s flash reflects off the surface of the subject, the texture of walls, curtains, carpets and posters.
The Belgian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale presents a series of monumental prints on baryta paper. Although some works also use colour and were made digitally, the exhibition focuses on new work in grey tones, heightening the iconic character of Braeckman’s images.
Dirk Braeckman publication
M - Museum Leuven and König Books in London are publishing a new book to accompany the exhibition—a selection of work from Dirk Braeckman’s practice, with the emphasis on his recent cretions. It includes 167 images and three texts in English by Douglas Fogle, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Eva Wittocx.
Follow-up exhibitions in Belgium
After the Venice Biennale, the works will return to Belgium in February 2018 where they will be presented in a double show of Dirk Braeckman’s work held simultaneously at M - Museum in Leuven and BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, in Brussels.
Two-day symposium in Venice and Leuven
In November 2017, M - Museum Leuven, Leuven University (KUL), the Lieven Gevaert Centre, LUCA School of Arts and IUAV University of Venice organize the two-day international symposium “Picture Presence: New Conceptions of Space and Place in Contemporary Photography,” focusing on the broader relation between photography, space and spatiality.
Dirk Braeckman has spent the past 25 years gradually developing an extensive portfolio. Working with the medium of photography, he occupies a distinctive place within the visual arts. He has taken part in numerous exhibitions, such as solo shows at M – Museum Leuven, Le Bal in Paris, BOZAR in Brussels, De Appel in Amsterdam, S.M.A.K. (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Ghent. Recent gallery shows include Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, Thomas Fischer Gallery in Berlin and RoseGallery in Santa Monica. Braeckman’s works are part of private and public collections around the world, including in FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Sammlung Goetz, FNAC Paris or Musée d’Art Contemporain et Moderne in Strasbourg.
Eva Wittocx is senior curator at M — Museum Leuven, where she developed the institution’s contemporary art programme focusing on solo exhibitions by both emerging and established artists. She also writes about contemporary art and curates the yearly performance festival Playground. She was a curator at the S.M.A.K. (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Ghent from 1997 to 2006, and at the STUK Arts Centre between 2006 and 2009.
Commissioner: Sven Gatz, Flemish Minister for Culture, Media, Youth & Brussels
Curator: Eva Wittocx
Organisation: M — Museum Leuven
Scientic Partner: KU Leuven, Lieven Gevaert Centre & LUCA School of Arts
Partners: BOZAR — Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, Flanders Arts Institute, STUK — House for Dance, Image & Sound and Zeno X Gallery Antwerp
With the main support of: Nationale Loterij – Loterie Nationale & Fondation Willame
With the support of: Filliers Dry Gin 28, IC Verzekeringen – CI Assurances & Friends of the Belgian Pavilion
