Stephan Vanfleteren "Belgicum"
Flanders Center
This event has ended.
For fifteen years, Stephan Vanfleteren has captured portraits and landscapes of small towns in Belgium. The series, "Belgicum", consists of black-and-white photographs that document the phenomena of everyday life in Flanders and Wallonia. In contrast to the vibrant and contemporary Belgium often portrayed in the media, the works reveal a glimpse of the melancholic and somewhat nostalgic world that is rarely exposed to public eyes.
Born 1969, Vanfleteren is a young and well acclaimed Flemish photographer who has received many national and international photography awards. His works will be exhibited in Japan for the first time.
[Image: ©Stephan Vanfleteren]
Media
Schedule
from February 08, 2008 to March 08, 2008
Artist(s)
Reviews
Stephan Vanfleteren captures a world often unseen by most people who go to Flanders. In a way, the people he chooses to photograph, their expressions and settings, remind me of some of Van Gogh's subjects. However, he brings to us a world of people and places we may very well know, yet we feel compelled to keep quiet. In a very confident way, Mr. Vanflerten juxtaposes the beauty of of photographic excellence with subjects we may not consider beautiful, such as old age, poverty, and other like themes. The pictures are beautiful, at times humorous, at times melancholic, at times full of hope and wonderment. The use of shallow depth of field in the images highlight the features of the subjects in a way that brings us closer to them.
見に行ったのは先週だったので、レビューが遅くなり申し訳ないなあという思いであることを某関係者に告げておきます。
さて展示は、大阪・某所近辺で行われた･･･はずもなく、ベルギーという国に漂う日常の風景をモノクロで切り取りまざまざと見せてくれています。
･･･“まざまざと”という言葉は、案外誇張しすぎかもしれません。観光で見る都市風景と住むことによって見る都市の印象とは像がぶれることもあります。
さりとて、この写真はあくまで観光に対する単純な反発的感情とは異なるものの表現です。むしろモノクロにより、私たちの感じるリアルの外に潜む国家―いや、その“土地(風土)”に潜む連綿を私たちの中にも潜む生地という場所への感情をも喚起してくれるようです。その時間として失われた幻想性も。
一つ、遊び心に溢れた写真が、１枚あります。ある意味その１枚がStephan Vanfleteren氏の祖国ベルギーへ伝えようとしている事が凝縮されている気がしました。