Edition 2015

Hamza Halloubi is fascinated by the space between fiction and documentary. In his work, he creates narratives that lie somewhere between personal and collective history. It is a personal view of an event, approached subjectively, which questions the official perspective. Halloubi is also interested in the grammar and semiotics of film and language. In his films, he develops an aesthetic that seeks to combine the internal poetry of human encounters with a conceptual approach.

Ivre à Tunis is a book containing short texts and photograms that Halloubi derived from a video film featuring a nighttime scene in which a young man celebrates the escape of dictator Ben Ali. The video installation Late focuses on intellectual Edward Said, offering an artistic perspective on the intellectual journey of a writer. Passage is a video Halloubi shot in Jerusalem. For the most part, the camera was inside Halloubi’s pocket during his visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the old city center. This rather abstract footage, accompanied by city sounds in the background—including the muezzin’s call to prayer—lends the ordinary walk an almost mystical quality.

Hamza Halloubi lives and works in Brussels, Amsterdam, and Tangier. He studied fine arts at La Cambre and continued his education at the HISK in Ghent and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. He has held solo exhibitions at institutions such as Argos in Brussels (2021), Museum De Pont in Tilburg (2020), and A Tale of A Tub in Rotterdam (2016). His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at venues such as S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2019), SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT (2018), Witte de With in Rotterdam (2016), and EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam (2016).

Katrin Kamrau doesn’t simply collect objects, prints, and photographs—she arranges them in a way that challenges the viewer to reflect on the use of images in both historical and contemporary media and society.

In her 2015 work SPEKTRUM*objekt18(portrait)II, she presents 43 portraits, each containing either an excess or deficiency of yellow (Y) or magenta (M). These prints are based on the schematic representation of a color chart once used by photographers to quickly produce photos that appeared as neutral as possible. For Kamrau, this is an expression of a typically Western mode of thinking. She also brings this mindset to light in SPEKTRUM*shelf (2013), in which six shelves of photographs zoom in on various parameters of photography: time, the viewer’s gaze, perception, light, composition, etc. Taken as a whole, one realizes the photographer exercises a certain power over the person being photographed. For Testreihe I – VI (2015), Kamrau reconstructed a composition from a test image in the interactive setting of a studio. Viewers could stand in the exact spot as the model in the original image, making them not just observers but participants in the artwork.

Katrin Kamrau lives and works in Antwerp. In 2013, she graduated from the HISK in Ghent. She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as M HKA in Antwerp, ikob in Eupen, Künstlerhaus in Bremen, and the Haus der Photographie in the Deichtorhallen. In 2010, she received the gute aussichten – junge deutsche fotografie award and in 2014 the GWK Art Prize.

At Bozar, Lola Lasurt presented three works. In the Rotonde Bertouille, The Match (2014) depicted a 1976 football match where married women played against single women during the annual celebration of the Spanish Communist Party. Further along in the exhibition, visitors discovered the comic book A Visit to the CP Nel Museum with Mo. Mo is South African cartoonist Mogorosi Motshumi (°1955), one of the most important figures in South African comics during the final years of apartheid. Lasurt and Motshumi met during Lasurt’s residency at Greatmore Art Studios in Cape Town and they stayed in touch. The art comic features excerpts from their correspondence. The video installation Double Authorization (2014) emerged at the intersection of two stories tied to public commemoration—one about a monument to anarchist and educator Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, and the other about a square in Mont-roig del Camp that was renamed in 1979 from Plaça del Generalísimo Franco to Plaça de Joan Miró.

Lola Lasurt lives and works in Ghent. In Spain, she pursued various academic and artistic programs. In 2014, she completed her training at HISK in Ghent. She has held solo exhibitions at institutions such as Fundació Miró in Barcelona (2014) and Espai Dos, Arts Visuals in Terrassa (2012). Her work has also been shown in Manifesta 15 in Barcelona (2024), the Fotonoviembre Biennial in Tenerife (2023), Bethanien Berlin (2016), and Netwerk Aalst (2016).

For their installation at Bozar, photographers Max Pinckers and Michiel Burger drew inspiration from a collection of British propaganda materials concerning the Mau Mau uprising against the British colonial government between 1952 and 1960. According to Pinckers and Burger, images are always politically charged due to their visual language. The installation and accompanying photo book presented a visual corpus made up of different components in dialogue with each other. The work occupied the space between two conflicting strategies: colonial propaganda and the contemporary Kenyan representation of the Mau Mau. In British propaganda, the Mau Mau were depicted as beasts—a stark contrast to modern Kenyan portrayals that celebrate them as freedom fighters. With this work, the duo offered a visual interpretation of a piece of history deeply tainted by ideology. The artists highlighted the power of images and their manipulative ability to shape historical narratives.

Max Pinckers lives and works in Brussels. In 2012, he earned his Master’s degree in photography from KASK in Ghent, where he also completed a PhD in the arts in 2021. His work has been shown at the Asama International Photo Festival in Miyota, Japan (2022), the Fotomuseum Winterthur (2021), the FOMU in Antwerp (2017), MOCAK in Kraków (2016), and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2015).
Michiel Burger lives and works in Antwerp. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in photography from ArtEZ University of the Arts in Enschede and a Master’s from the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen. His work has been exhibited at the FOMU in Antwerp (2022), STUK in Leuven (2020), and the New York Photo Festival (2011).

Hana Miletić reflects on issues of representation and social reproduction by drawing connections between photography and weaving. The artist models her woven textiles after photographs she takes of repairs in public space. Miletić uses the weaving process—which requires time and dedication—as a way to resist certain economic and social working conditions, such as acceleration, standardization, and transparency.

At Bozar, Miletić organized daily live readings from the poetry collection Tenir Paroles, a book based on lyrics by La Frénétick, a collective of young Brussels-based rappers mentored by Miletić. Each day, the collection was read by a different individual who responded to his or her own personal and social context through stylized forms of language. Miletić created a special reading and listening space for this purpose. In doing so, she explored ways to share the spatial and temporal resources of an art institution.

Hana Miletić lives and works in Brussels. She studied gender studies and earned a Master’s degree in Art History and Archaeology from VUB in 2005. She then studied photography in Amsterdam and obtained a Master’s in Fine Arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She has held solo exhibitions at venues including XYZ Collective in Tokyo (2024), MUDAM Luxembourg (2022), Kunsthall Bergen (2021), and WIELS Brussels (2018). Her work has also been shown at Manifesta 14 in Prishtina (2022), the 4th Art Encounters Biennial in Timișoara (2021), and Kunsthalle Wien (2020). In 2021, she received the 22nd Baloise Art Prize.

According to Emmanuelle Quertain, we tend to think about painting too academically. The essence of art is not based solely on technical skill but above all on offering a perspective on reality.

At Bozar, Quertain explored the fragile boundary between painting and space. This led to diptych paintings that presented the same photographic space, placed in both ‘indoor’ and ‘outdoor’ contexts. Everything was bathed in the same color, regardless of the setting. Through various artificial nuances, Quertain adapted her paintings to the spatiality of the exhibition rooms. She guided your gaze toward notions of warmth and cold, neutral and tinted, leading you to the point where your eye linked the painting to the surrounding space. In that aesthetic moment, you saw both the space and the artworks with new eyes.

Emmanuelle Quertain lives and works in Brussels. She graduated from the École de Recherche Graphique in 2010 and was an artist-in-residence at WIELS in 2013. She has held solo exhibitions at venues such as EMERGENT in Veurne, KRIEG in Hasselt, and CC Strombeek. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at S.M.A.K. in Ghent and the Roger Raveel Museum in Machelen-aan-de-Leie. Quertain’s work is part of various public collections, including MAC’S Grand-Hornu and M Leuven.

Emmanuel Van der Auwera questions our visual literacy: How do images from contemporary mass media affect different audiences and to what end? How do existing codes and conventions influence the framing of events and their incorporation into our collective memory? Van der Auwera’s work reflects on the chains of image production and consumption, and on the responsibility that is inherently tied to the act of viewing.

At Bozar, Van der Auwera presented the film A Certain Amount of Clarity (2013). The film consists of video messages posted online. Each clip shows a teenager reacting emotionally to a YouTube video that depicts a real murder. The emotions range from morbid fascination to disgust, doubt, and curiosity. The original video is never shown—only the teenagers’ responses to it. In editing, Van der Auwera alternates between expressions of horror and re-enactments or statements reminiscent of courtroom testimonies.

Emmanuel Van der Auwera lives and works in Brussels. He was the first recipient of the Goldwasser Donation, awarded by WIELS and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. He has had solo exhibitions at the House of Electronic Arts in Basel, IKOB in Eupen, and Le Botanique in Brussels. Van der Auwera has also participated in group exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen, and the 8th Yokohama Triennale.

Hannelore Van Dijck explores surfaces in her charcoal drawings. The deep black of the charcoal is refined and delicate. The temporary nature of the drawing enhances the poetic qualities of the fragile material. By not striving for permanence, the drawing is imbued with a profound sense of vulnerability. With large-scale works that fill entire spaces, Van Dijck interprets the original architecture of a location and seeks to create a new kind of space. In the work she created especially for the Centre for Fine Arts, Van Dijck likewise responded to the architecture of the exhibition space. She viewed the experience of visiting the exhibition as a kind of walk. With a tunnel-like structure, she marked out a transition point along the visitor’s route through the building, turning the walk itself into a work of art.

Hannelore Van Dijck lives and works in Geel. She studied Fine Arts at Sint-Lucas in Ghent and has had solo exhibitions at venues such as the Musée d’art contemporain in Lyon (2019). Her work has also been shown at Be-Part in Waregem (2017), the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona (2015), Drawing Centre in Diepenheim (2014), and Voorkamer in Lier (2012).

Floris Vanhoof is fascinated by the hybrid form of music, photography, and film. His sources of inspiration include structural film and early electronic music. The artist builds his own instruments and installations, exploring the border zone between image (film or slides) and light (projection).

For Stripes, Vanhoof applied the phase-shifting technique to film. Steve Reich and Brian Eno used this technique with tape recorders in their music. Endless variations of overlapping horizontal stripes projected by 16 mm projectors created a striking optical effect. In his second installation, Vanhoof used four slide projectors and a series of photographs depicting monstrous heads to draw attention to the act of viewing itself. Through this, he experimented with the slowness of the eye, macro imagery, and film grain. Like Stripes, where the stripes alternated between sharp and blurry, affecting your eye muscles, this second installation also created a physical and perceptual interaction with the viewer.

Floris Vanhoof lives and works in Antwerp. In 2005, he earned a master’s degree in audiovisual arts, specializing in experimental film at Sint-Lukas in Brussels. He has had solo exhibitions at, among others, CINEMATEK in Brussels (2020) and De Warande in Turnhout (2018). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam (2024), Kunsthal in Rotterdam (2019), De Centrale in Brussels (2017), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2016), Netwerk Aalst (2015), and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle (2013).