From the series The tourist, 2020, © Kourtney Roy, courtesy of the artist
Mirror of Self
27 January - 25 March 2023
After In the Shadow of trees in 2021, Mirror of Self is the 7th thematic exhibition created by Hangar within the framework of PhotoBrussels Festival. The exhibition consists of both selected artists (17 of them) and winners of a call for projects (6 of them).
23 artists are exhibited at Hangar on the theme of self-portrait. Among them, 8 are under 30 years old.
What is the current standing of the self-portrait in the world of contemporary photography? In the realm of selfies, what does the artistic practice of self-portrait still hold? Through various projects and artistic approaches, Mirror of Self questions the representation of the self, whether in a quest for identity, a relationship with one's environment, with others or with oneself.
(FR, 1995), lives and works in Brussels (BE).
Corporis Antrum, 2021
Romy Berger’s work takes shape before our eyes through various metaphors of a hybrid universe revolving from anticipation to memory. Skull, silhouette, intestine, cosmos, and initiation ceremonies punctuate an introspective journey in which Romy Berger takes her body as a pillar of exploration.
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The photographer refers to herself as an archaeologist who scours grounds, "the digital tool enables the memory to be revealed and universal mental images to appear." Video, installation, photography and 3D are different means used to translate a hybrid language. The photograms constructed in the darkness and intimacy of a photo lab are a subtle evocation of fossils, archives of our mental territory.
(FI, 1972), lives and works between Helsinki (FI) and Avallon (FR).
Sebaldiana Memento Mori, 2019
Her work has been alternating between autobiographical and art-historical approaches. For this series, Elina Brotherus was inspired by W. G. Sebald's never- completed novel about Corsica. The artist went to the places the writer depicts: the forest of Aitone and the Bavella massif, the hotel, the beach and the cemetery of Piana, and the sculptural red cliffs.
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The photographer stages herself in a range of scenery related to death, as a way of remembering her deceased loved ones. By unintended chance, Elina Brotherus’s mother passes away the same year as W. G. Sebald. Thus, she used her mother’s watercolour paper to create cyanotypes with leaves she recovered from burial sites. “The series became a tribute not only to the Island of Beauty and to my favourite author, but also to my mother, Ulla Brita Brotherus.”
(SN, 1985), lives and works in Paris (FR).
My Myself and I, 2021
This is a series of metaphorical portraits, in which Gabriel Dia’s figure is both spied upon and concealed. Evanescent, masked, luminescent, upset portraits of the artist’s emotional self. During the second confinement, Gabriel Dia fights against boredom and, questions his individuality through his clothing style.
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"It seems to me that nowadays fashion is no longer just about clothes, but one of the strongest ways of expressing our personality, which confinement has deprived us of." The artist’s approach brings back the body as the most powerful means of human expression. Between imagination and reality, plastic arts and photography, the artist uses his body to reassert himself.
(SN, 1980), lives and works in Dakar (SN).
Allegoria, 2021
Omar Victor Diop calls for a change of emphasis and critical thinking "about environmental justice, anthropocentrism, and our collective and individual responsibilities in securing more viable, liveable futures."
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The cultural politics of self-modeling, the recasting of history and the aesthetic style of African and black diasporic identities are at the core of the photographer's work. The artist highlights these premises with ecological awareness, mobilising endangered animals in his imagery and indigenous inscriptions, through traditional African robes and vibrant tones. His artworks are a reflection of the transitory character of humanity on earth.
(IL, 1997), lives and works in Marseille (FR).
Khamsa khamsa khamsa, 2012- 2022
This series is the result of a 20 year-long process, started at the age of 14 and is a visual autobiographical narrative in the form of a family archive.
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Her mother used to say "the archive keeps that world we lived in as a real place, which otherwise could be easily mistaken for a dream." Khamsa, khamsa, khamsa - meaning 'Five' in Arabic - repeated three times like a protective incantation - refers to the brotherhood of five children, of whom she is the eldest. Julia Gat tells the story of her childhood and adolescence, growing up alongside her two brothers and two sisters. At home, they are taught an alternative educational philosophy, 'Unschooling' as means to experience freedom in their choice of activities and learning. Beyond that, Julia Gat relates her story by gradually defining the faces and bodies of her own as they evolve.
(NL, 1994), lives and works in Amsterdam (NL).
Series of conversations, 2018-ongoing
Laura Hospes considers her skin as co-author of her work, in a symbiotic movement, the artist's work underlines the physicality, femininity and ephemerality of the body. At times skin and mind are interdependent and at the other disconnected, the photographer approaches this artistic process as a conversation.
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"As I am focused on my bodily position, I disregard my psychical well being." Having suffered sexual abuse, Laura Hospes seeks coping mechanisms by assigning different roles to her skin. She creates a shield against the outside world by ascribing her body as an independent entity.
No Man’s Land, 2020
For the filmed performance No Man's Land, Laura Hospes gradually frees her plaster-covered body on both a physical and psychological level. The artist questions the limits of intimacy and the viewer's gaze in the face of this ritualised experience.
(BE, 1974), lives and works in Brussels (BE).
Katalog, 2022
A collector since a tender age, Barbara Iweins draws inspiration from literature (Edouard Levé) and contemporary art (Sophie Calle, Christian Boltanski). Collecting, gathering, ordering, classifying and exhibiting objects has always given her considerable pleasure.
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"I've photographed everything from my daughter's sock with a hole in it to my son's Lego, my vibrator, my anti-anxiety medication, absolutely everything." She seeks an aesthetic emotion in the assembly of elements that, at first sight, may seem out of place or even tasteless. Following Kant, for whom the object exists but becomes acknowledged only when the subject faces it and recognizes it as such. The artist starts a radical confrontation with her possessions. 12,795 photos of 12,795 objects.
(KR, 1969), lives and works in Seoul (KR).
Me, Challenge, 2021
After a severe car accident, Yunsoon Jeong's artistic language takes a different path. His despair and painful experience are at the centre of his art process, which he considers even more important than the outcome.
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"My work is a metaphor for my strong desire to live." The South Korean artist does not simply document the scars of his past, but the determination to overcome his physical suffering and trauma through scenarios in which he stages himself.
(JP, 1987), lives and works in Gunma (JP).
Possession, 2022–ongoing
Possession is Mari Katayama’s latest series, in which she stages herself, as usual, with objects that she has created and that refer to previous series (Shadow puppet - 2016, Beast - 2016, Thus I exist - 2015). Mari Katayama suffers from a congenital condition; at the age of 9, she had both legs amputated. She has an impactful approach that seeks to find beauty where a priori there is none. The artist prompts the viewer to rethink the norms and standards of beauty.
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She is keen to work on the framing of her works with various collected artifacts and shells, a process that goes beyond the medium of photography alone. In making objects and self-portraits, tracing her own outline equaled pursuing the appeal that everyone contained. “No matter how much I hated how I was. I may too, have such beauty. I learned that I have within myself the same as you do. I am you.”
(FR, 1993), lives and works in Paris (FR).
Miroir, Miroir, 2020-ongoing
Auriane Kołodziej approaches self-portraiture in her practice as a way to prove that she exists. This series was born after a dream that deeply marked her. Through the artist’s series and more broadly her art, she anchors and shares her story.
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"Two years ago, I had a dream. I was standing, fully naked, in an endless bright white room. It was just me, and a tiny mirror." She draws the outline of her artistic language through her anxious and nostalgic personality. For a long time, the artist suffered from anorexia, and she found art, more particularly in the representation of herself in the mirror, a means of healing and accepting her condition.
(PE, 1979), lives and works between Eugene and Los Angeles (US).
1979 Contact Negatives, 2019
Tarrah Krajnak was adopted in the Peruvian capital in 1979. The photographer approaches the series as a way of imagining her body returning to Lima. "I am interested in the multi-temporality of the photographic medium, and the potential of the darkroom itself as a site of performance or spectro-poetics."
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She uses a temporary darkroom, multiple projections and large format cameras and re-photographs to intersect the turbulent history of the city and her own. In a dark and agitated atmosphere, she expresses the marks of traumatic experiences on bodies and the erasure of violent histories in archives.
(CN, 1993), lives and works between London (UK) and Fuzhou (CN).
To cut the feet, to fit the shoes, 2021
The name of this series is a Chinese idiom used to describe the fatality of human condition.
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The photographer seeks to combat the anxiety of appearance conveyed by the mass media and what he calls the fetishism of merchandise "to let go of harsh self- recrimination and happily accept our own identity and uniqueness, fearlessly, and delightfully." This series takes the form of a book, and introduces more profound ideas concerning self-image, spirituality and cultural theory through the creation of Chinese symbols or use of English words as section headings.
(PL, 1942 - 2022), lived and worked in Kalisz (PL).
In his work, 1966-2022
Tomasz Machciński embodied different characters from history, literature, politics, popular culture and characters he invents, all of which come from different ethnic, sexual or social backgrounds. He had no need for artifice since he used everything his body gave him: hair growth, loss of teeth, diseases, aging. A singular performer, Tomasz Machciński reinvented his own identity, composed a personal mythology, while exploiting conceptual photography in its theatrical form.
(NL/HR, 1991), lives and works in Amsterdam (NL).
Eutierria, 2019
Sanja Marušić and her husband are newly married and co-create this series together. Somewhere between profound love and new beginnings, the couple slowly uncovers the new dimension that marriage brings to their relationship. This series is about balancing, oneness, surrendering oneself to one-another and nature, finding calmness, connectedness in the middle of movement.
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Before You, 2020
In her practice, Sanja Marušić explores multiple mediums and techniques: photography, painting and collage. Through vivid and playful self-portraits, Sanja Marušić expresses both a body and a person in transition, offering the viewer a closer look to the most meaningful change. The artist portrays herself as a mother to be "my photography and life are no longer about myself alone."
With you part two, 2021
Sanja Marušić's child is one year old and the artist decides to create this series around motherhood. Shortly before starting this project, the photographer is told that her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Feeling vulnerable and insecure, she feels the need to be close to her child. As the weeks go by, her mother's health improves, and her images become more joyful. In this series, the subject of motherhood as a central point takes an unanticipated direction and confers a double meaning to her artwork.
(FR, 1982), lives and works in Vauvenargues (FR).
Sanfins, 2019-2020
Bruno Oliveira, due to an administrative error, is the only person on earth whose birthplace is a village named Sanfins, located only a few steps from the hospital he was originally born in.
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In this video, the photographer-videographer depicts the village, mainly composed of the members of his family. Sanfins is an ode to the notion of community. In a concern of remembrance, the artist intends ti revive Sanfins forever through the delicacy of the sounds, conversations and gestures of everyday life. “The name of the village reminds me of ‘sans fin’ in French, which means ‘endless’.”
(EC, 1986), lives and works in London (UK).
Until you change, 2017
Paola Paredes blends traditional documentary photography with staged imagery, her work focuses on issues facing the LGBT community in Ecuador. There are so called 'cure' centres to treat men and women for homosexuality.
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Paola Paredes undertook a documentary research by collecting testimonials and conducting a 6-month interview with a woman who had experienced a stay in one of the above mentioned institutions. "The strict ban on using a camera inside these places made it impossible to tell this story using traditional documentation practices. These images allow us to see what was never meant to be seen." Putting herself at the forefront of imagery, her work represents a personal and intimate challenge to social prejudices. The artist invites a renewed discourse on the interactions between sexuality, family and personal freedom in contemporary society.
(FR, 1999), lives and works in Brussels (BE).
Garçon assigné fille à la naissance, 2018
In the summer of 2018, Louka Perderizet began this series chronicling his life story: "I was assigned a girl, but that's not who I am, I'm a boy." His project consists of self-portraits that revolve around physical changes, photos of his relatives and artifacts. Through his art, he takes a stand on his mental and physical suffering, on his interrogation and on the path that leads to fulfillment.
(CA, 1981), lives and works in Paris (FR).
The Tourist, 2019-2020
Kourtney Roy’s individual colour language, filmic approach, is an atmosphere of fun and debauchery and is what characterise this series and more extensively her work.
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The artist transports the viewer from reality to fiction, leaving them in a tangible state of confusion. Kourtney Roy with a lot of humour depicts a reality in which, "most people enjoy the anticipation and recollection of a holiday more than the actual experience" - Del Barrett. What appears to be glamorous and aesthetically pleasing shots are rather a rendering of the reality of most people on a summer break. One-night stands, holiday romances, ice cream that melts on our counterfeit jewellery or boredom that makes us behave peculiarly. On the road to the unspoken, Kourtney Roy triggers the limits of societal norms and raises questions about its relevance.
(US, 1995), lives and works in Boston (US).
Scenes of Self: Redressing Patriarchy, 2019-2022
C. Rose Smith questions the relationship between the white cotton dress shirt and classicism, elitism and labour. The photographic medium with the Afro-surrealist approach allows the artist to interrogate a series of radicalised and gendered societal norms. She criticizes, interprets and reinvents a diversity of experiences of her ancestors and their subjugators.
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"When composing my self-portraits, I also call upon historical proclamations like Ain’t I a Woman and I Am a Man that speak to the lack of empathy and humanity rooted in anti-Blackness." Scene of Self: Redressing Patriarchy offers a deeper insight into the semiotics of fashion's role in capitalism to expose particular and anomalous systems of patriarchy, past and present.
(DE, 1946), lives and works in Darmstadt (DE).
Father Search, 2003-2007
Annegret Soltau’s life phases and experiences mirror her art, where expressing truth and imperfections is the path to self-acceptance. The photographer was born illegitimately, following her mother's affair with an officer at the end of the Second World War. Due to the war context, Annegret Soltau’s mother loses track of her child's birth father.
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In this series, the artist shares her longstanding quest to find her biological father. "The unresolved story of my fate as a result of the Second World War is literally written on the face of my self-portraits." Beyond the artist’s search for her identity, Annegret Soltau denounces a broken generation, to whom the war has left marks and a certain emptiness to carry out throughout life.
The Dazzled Project is a French collective composed by Hélène Bellenger (FR, 1989), Valentin Russo (1996), and Margot Millet (1995). The three artists are graduates from Arles's National School of Photography (FR). Their installation questions the way in which new technologies and social networks modify our relationship to the face, to the self-portrait and to the representation of the self in a digital era.
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Dazzled Project 002, 2022.
Hélène Bellenger, Margot Millet and Valentin Russo have initiated a collection of selfies. Gleaned meticulously from the internet and social networks, the selfies with flash in the mirror show a part of the face and make it disappear at the same time. Gathered in the manner of a constellation of flashes or stars, these images drown the individualities of these self-portraits in the pattern of these portraits found by millions on social networks. "The face is a privileged medium for understanding the sensitivity of an era and the way in which it mirrors itself, in particular through portraits, which were for a long time reserved to aristocracy."
(CZ, 1996), lives and works in Lodz (PL).
We can't live- without each other, 2019-ongoing
She invites the viewer to explore the depths of her disrupted humour, the depiction of a kitsch-centric performance putting the discomfort of the 'hideous' aside. She was an only child until she was 13 years old. One day, a baby stepped into her life and a war began. The artist claims that the war is still on, leaving it unclear whether she means it literally or sarcastically. In the very end, why does it matter?
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Karolina Wojtas and her brother decided to document some of their battles and tricks, to teach siblings from all around the world “how to fight!” “Dear siblings-proprietor. Stay strong and do not stop struggling for your position. Show those mean creatures, who are also from the body and blood of your parents, that the worst nightmares they have, are just a fairytale in comparison of what you are capable of…”
(UK, 1980) lives and works in Leeds (UK).
The Substitutes, 2007–2020
In this series, Dawn Woolley's work blurs the line between self-portraiture and still life, producing inanimate bodies and seemingly animated objects.
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The artist creates photo self-portraits to consider her own experiences as an object of the male gaze. “I examine representations of gender in adverts, magazines, tv programmes and on social media in order to appropriate their visual language and expose the stereotypes they reproduce.”
Self-Portrait Gallery : From Man Ray to Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi, Vivian Maier, Seydou Keïta, William Klein, Agnès Varda, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Man Ray, Nicholas Nixon, Saul Leiter, Michael Wolf, Lee Friedlander, Harry Gruyaert, Marcel Lefrancq, Stephan Vanfleteren, Martin Parr and Dieter Appelt.
Thanks to the lenders:
Fotomuseum Antwerpen, 2020/89
In collaboration with Gallery FIFTY ONE
Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris/Bruxelles
Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi
Collection Astrid Ullens de Schooten
Magnum Photos