Dirk Braeckman
11 Mar - 18 Apr 2015
© Dirk Braeckman
1/1 - L034 a - 2015 - 1/1 2015
gelatin silver print mounted on aluminium unique
60 x 90 cm
1/1 - L034 a - 2015 - 1/1 2015
gelatin silver print mounted on aluminium unique
60 x 90 cm
DIRK BRAECKMAN
1/1
11 March - 18 April 2015
Following his acclaimed solo exhibition at Le Bal in Paris at the end of 2014, Dirk Braeckman (b.1958 Eeklo), to our great pleasure, returns to Antwerp with yet another new exhibition. It is only a year ago that he filled two rooms in the gallery with a selection of new works. This exhibition, along with his exhibition at Le Bal, was a catalyst for a series of special works. The singular image makes its entrance into his oeuvre in a very prominent manner. It marks the artist’s return to a working process he developed during the eighties, which he here reworks and perfects.
The exhibition 1/1 centres on the singular image. One of his most decisive underlying motives has to do with painting, a medium that has long intrigued him and that has strongly influenced his work. He also has, in this sense, more affinity with sculpture than with photography. Dirk Braeckman is a creator of images who uses photography as a means rather than as an end in itself. From this perspective, the return to the singular work – whether in series or not – seems a logical step in the move away from the basic property of the photographic medium, that is, of reproducibility. Even when he makes editions, there are clear nuances between each of his prints.
Even though Braeckman uses analogue photography to create images, he does not adopt a reactionary attitude toward the digital image. He does not eschew new developments but prefers the materiality that is characteristic of the analogue development of a silver gelatin print. The work is presented in a very direct manner. The use of a glass barrier is systematically avoided so as to strengthen the evocative tactility of the work. Diane Dufour, director of Le Bal, says the following on the black and white images of Dirk Braeckman:
“La sensualité exacerbée de ce monde inerte renvoie la tactilité du tirage photographique lui-même, magnifiée par un papier mat et un raffinement extrême des nuances de gris. Toutes les nuances de gris. Gris perle, gris charbon, gris argent, gris lézard, gris platinium, gris phénix, gris ardoise, gris Lisbonne, gris horloge, gris lune ... la palette infinie du monochrome.’ ‘The heightened sensuality of this inert world is reflected in the tactility of the photographic print itself, enhanced by a matte paper and an extreme refinement in the shades of grey. All shades of grey. Pearl grey, charcoal grey, silver grey, lizard grey, platinum grey, phoenix grey, slate grey, Lisbon grey, clock grey, moon grey... the infinite palette of the monochrome.”
Dirk Braeckman’s conceptual framework is inscrutable but follows an internal logic. Despite the chaos, the spontaneity and the desire for freedom in the creation, contingency remains a controlled phenomenon. The creation unfolds in five stages that are carried out in one movement, although there is often a lot of time between them. There is the recording, the development of the negative, the selection of the negatives, the processing of the negative and, finally, the manipulation of the print, achieved through a constant interplay between inside and outside, day and night, light and dark. Braeckman lets himself be carried away by life, by the people he meets and the places he visits. He always travels with his camera at hand and is very aware – in a spontaneous manner – of what he perceives. In the photographs he makes, the human being is often absent. He is a witness of that which man has realized yet abandoned, temporarily or for good. Later, the film rolls, the developed or digitized negatives disappear in his archive. Occasionally, he browses through it and takes to the darkroom with a number of negatives. The darkroom has become a laboratory where he scratches negatives, adds dust to them, adds chemicals to the printing process and uses different light sources so as to paint with light in an even more intense manner than before. He often abandons the principles of photography, using overexposure or slowing down processes to the point where the image shows through the paper, leaving a mysterious impression. The subject in the picture is always subordinate to the final work, and his images are never connected to one another, neither in time nor in space. Throughout the years, there have been recurring themes such as curtains, corners of rooms, reflections, and nudes. These are always subjective impressions of a reality. Nothing is staged. Dirk Braeckman’s works are not documents, they are photographic paintings that suggest, intrigue and leave an impression. As author and critic Luc Sante puts it: “They are like time bombs ticking away.”
Currently there is work of Dirk Braeckman on view in the exhibition ‘De Zee - Salut d’honneur Jan Hoet’, for which he also realized the campaign image and recorded a special video with The Van Jets. Recently, the group exhibition ‘The Importance of Being ...’ opened in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana with work by Braeckman. The exhibition will travel to the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Buenos Aires, the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University in Sao Paolo.
In 2014, his installation ‘Anonymous / Dirk Braeckman / Schwarzschild’ travelled to different places, including the S.M.A.K. in Ghent. There were also works on view in ‘Capita Selecta’ in the Broelmuseum in Kortrijk, ‘Passions Secrètes, Private Flemisch Collections’ in Le Tripostal in Lille, ‘Biennale of Painting: The touch of the painter’ at the Roger Raveelmuseum in Zulte-Machelen and ‘De Vierkantigste Rechthoek’, curated by Tom Barman at the Kunsthal Kade in Amersfoort. 2014 ended with a unique solo exhibition at Le Bal in Paris.
Braeckman already had solo exhibitions at Museum M in Leuven (BE), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle (BE), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE), De Appel in Amsterdam (NL), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), Kunsthalle Erfurt (DE) and Fotohof Salzburg (AT). Permanent works are presented in the Concertgebouw in Bruges and the Ghent courthouse. Work by Dirk Braeckman is included in the following public collections: the Artothèque in Annecy (FR), the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (FR), the Centro Fotografia de la Universidad Salamanca (ES), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), the Fondation Nationale d’Art Contemporain in Paris (FR), the Fotomuseum in Antwerp (BE), FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk (FR), FRAC RhôneAlpes in Villerbanne (FR), the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (NL) MAC’s Grand Hornu (BE), the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (FR), the Musée d’Art Contemporain et Moderne in Strasbourg (FR), the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi (BE), the San Francisco Museum of Art (US), the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne (CH), the Musée Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône (FR), M HKA in Antwerp (BE), Mu.ZEE in Ostend (BE), the Royal Palace in Brussels (BE), the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels (BE), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE) and the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (NL).
1/1
11 March - 18 April 2015
Following his acclaimed solo exhibition at Le Bal in Paris at the end of 2014, Dirk Braeckman (b.1958 Eeklo), to our great pleasure, returns to Antwerp with yet another new exhibition. It is only a year ago that he filled two rooms in the gallery with a selection of new works. This exhibition, along with his exhibition at Le Bal, was a catalyst for a series of special works. The singular image makes its entrance into his oeuvre in a very prominent manner. It marks the artist’s return to a working process he developed during the eighties, which he here reworks and perfects.
The exhibition 1/1 centres on the singular image. One of his most decisive underlying motives has to do with painting, a medium that has long intrigued him and that has strongly influenced his work. He also has, in this sense, more affinity with sculpture than with photography. Dirk Braeckman is a creator of images who uses photography as a means rather than as an end in itself. From this perspective, the return to the singular work – whether in series or not – seems a logical step in the move away from the basic property of the photographic medium, that is, of reproducibility. Even when he makes editions, there are clear nuances between each of his prints.
Even though Braeckman uses analogue photography to create images, he does not adopt a reactionary attitude toward the digital image. He does not eschew new developments but prefers the materiality that is characteristic of the analogue development of a silver gelatin print. The work is presented in a very direct manner. The use of a glass barrier is systematically avoided so as to strengthen the evocative tactility of the work. Diane Dufour, director of Le Bal, says the following on the black and white images of Dirk Braeckman:
“La sensualité exacerbée de ce monde inerte renvoie la tactilité du tirage photographique lui-même, magnifiée par un papier mat et un raffinement extrême des nuances de gris. Toutes les nuances de gris. Gris perle, gris charbon, gris argent, gris lézard, gris platinium, gris phénix, gris ardoise, gris Lisbonne, gris horloge, gris lune ... la palette infinie du monochrome.’ ‘The heightened sensuality of this inert world is reflected in the tactility of the photographic print itself, enhanced by a matte paper and an extreme refinement in the shades of grey. All shades of grey. Pearl grey, charcoal grey, silver grey, lizard grey, platinum grey, phoenix grey, slate grey, Lisbon grey, clock grey, moon grey... the infinite palette of the monochrome.”
Dirk Braeckman’s conceptual framework is inscrutable but follows an internal logic. Despite the chaos, the spontaneity and the desire for freedom in the creation, contingency remains a controlled phenomenon. The creation unfolds in five stages that are carried out in one movement, although there is often a lot of time between them. There is the recording, the development of the negative, the selection of the negatives, the processing of the negative and, finally, the manipulation of the print, achieved through a constant interplay between inside and outside, day and night, light and dark. Braeckman lets himself be carried away by life, by the people he meets and the places he visits. He always travels with his camera at hand and is very aware – in a spontaneous manner – of what he perceives. In the photographs he makes, the human being is often absent. He is a witness of that which man has realized yet abandoned, temporarily or for good. Later, the film rolls, the developed or digitized negatives disappear in his archive. Occasionally, he browses through it and takes to the darkroom with a number of negatives. The darkroom has become a laboratory where he scratches negatives, adds dust to them, adds chemicals to the printing process and uses different light sources so as to paint with light in an even more intense manner than before. He often abandons the principles of photography, using overexposure or slowing down processes to the point where the image shows through the paper, leaving a mysterious impression. The subject in the picture is always subordinate to the final work, and his images are never connected to one another, neither in time nor in space. Throughout the years, there have been recurring themes such as curtains, corners of rooms, reflections, and nudes. These are always subjective impressions of a reality. Nothing is staged. Dirk Braeckman’s works are not documents, they are photographic paintings that suggest, intrigue and leave an impression. As author and critic Luc Sante puts it: “They are like time bombs ticking away.”
Currently there is work of Dirk Braeckman on view in the exhibition ‘De Zee - Salut d’honneur Jan Hoet’, for which he also realized the campaign image and recorded a special video with The Van Jets. Recently, the group exhibition ‘The Importance of Being ...’ opened in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana with work by Braeckman. The exhibition will travel to the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Buenos Aires, the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the University in Sao Paolo.
In 2014, his installation ‘Anonymous / Dirk Braeckman / Schwarzschild’ travelled to different places, including the S.M.A.K. in Ghent. There were also works on view in ‘Capita Selecta’ in the Broelmuseum in Kortrijk, ‘Passions Secrètes, Private Flemisch Collections’ in Le Tripostal in Lille, ‘Biennale of Painting: The touch of the painter’ at the Roger Raveelmuseum in Zulte-Machelen and ‘De Vierkantigste Rechthoek’, curated by Tom Barman at the Kunsthal Kade in Amersfoort. 2014 ended with a unique solo exhibition at Le Bal in Paris.
Braeckman already had solo exhibitions at Museum M in Leuven (BE), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle (BE), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE), De Appel in Amsterdam (NL), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), Kunsthalle Erfurt (DE) and Fotohof Salzburg (AT). Permanent works are presented in the Concertgebouw in Bruges and the Ghent courthouse. Work by Dirk Braeckman is included in the following public collections: the Artothèque in Annecy (FR), the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (FR), the Centro Fotografia de la Universidad Salamanca (ES), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), the Fondation Nationale d’Art Contemporain in Paris (FR), the Fotomuseum in Antwerp (BE), FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk (FR), FRAC RhôneAlpes in Villerbanne (FR), the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (NL) MAC’s Grand Hornu (BE), the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (FR), the Musée d’Art Contemporain et Moderne in Strasbourg (FR), the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi (BE), the San Francisco Museum of Art (US), the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne (CH), the Musée Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône (FR), M HKA in Antwerp (BE), Mu.ZEE in Ostend (BE), the Royal Palace in Brussels (BE), the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels (BE), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE) and the Centraal Museum in Utrecht (NL).