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Global Citizens

~ a blog for Tourists, Expats and Locals

Global Citizens

Tag Archives: Stephan Vanfleteren

Know your Masters

24 Sunday May 2020

Posted by katti in Belgium, do & go

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Beste fotograaf van Belgie, corona lock down, FOMU, M10 Monochrome, present, Stephan Vanfleteren, tentoonstelling Stephan Vanfleteren

Lockdown seems eternal. We are allowed to go out for some particular reasons, but none of it is much fun. Shopping in crowded cities with masks on, having to wait in line, being attentive not to come too close to others, wiping your hands with gel so often the skin bursts. That’s not really relaxing nor fun.

A guest in FOMU

Whatever we want to do we need to think ‘is that allowed?’. The rules are so complicated and there are so many exceptions and discussions that one would doubt just about anything. Can we take the bike in the car to drop us off somewhere far off (within Belgium, of course)? Can we go for a walk in the city when the stores are closed? Can we go for a ride with no destination without leaving the car? Etc. How on earth do you fill up your Sunday with something fun??

But then we found something!

Stephan Vanfleteren in FOMU

While zipping our coffee this morning we thought that maybe a visit to the museum (=allowed) might be a fun option. We need to make an online reservation and we imagine them all fully booked. But no! Just one look on the website showed us that we are not too late! The first museum I checked still had loads of availability, and a couple of clicks later we have the entry ticket on our phones. We’re off to Antwerp.

Stephan Vanfleteren FOMU

The roads are fuller then before, but still quite empty. So empty you can’t even rely on WAZE anymore. It’s a dark gloomy day, ideal for a visit to the museum.

We parked in front of the FOMU, where the exhibition of Stephan Vanfleteren has been extended, due to Corona. We have seen the exhibition already, last year. It was so popular that we could practically walk on the heads. Too crowded to read the names and info on the little tags next to the photographs. Those were the pre-corona days where tons of people could be packed in 1 room. Thinking about it now already makes me feel dizzy.

Stephan Vanfleteren FOMU

Now it was more than perfect. It was us, and maybe 4 or 6 other people, so we had all the time in the world to look at the work of one of the best Belgian photographers ever, time to enjoy, to reflect, to read, to think.

A museum visit we combined with a walk on the shores of the river, (probably not allowed), where in normal circumstances, the cold wind would have chased us into a bar to have a hot chocolate or a coffee. But not today. The new normal send us back to our car to drive home and have our drink there.

One of my favorite works… one you have to see live!

But still, it was great. It was a welcome diversion of what seems to be our new life -for now-. Enjoy our master! This a perfect to do tip!

If you haven’t seen the exhibition yet, you still have time, but now the time is perfect! Buy your tickets here; Extended until September 13. Waalse Kaai 47 in Antwerpen.

“I kiss her on the mouth…

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by katti in Belgium, do & go

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charleroi, cole mines, musée de la photography charleroi, poorest city of Belgium, Stephan Vanfleteren

no matter her stinking breath” (Stephan Vanfleteren about Charleroi) 

 

It is a dark and gloomy day. One of those that are typically Belgian, although, ever since I got here -it already seems months it is just weeks- we have had none. A day we decided was ideal to visit my grandmothers city of birth. City of birth, although her real roots can’t be found there : apparently her parents just happened to be there when she was born.

Charleroi, an old cole mining city in the south of Belgium. In ‘those days’, it was the 3th richest area of Europe. Cole mines and heavy metal factories were so blooming that they had to import ‘hands’ from the Flanders, Italy, Spain and Greece. That was probably the only reason why my great grandparents were there before the first world war, and why my gran had ‘Dampremy’ on her birth certificate.

Since then it has changed a lot. The mines are closed, so have the factories. And apparently, for the last 50 years nothing significant has been done to restore economy, to re-school the unemployed, no reconversion at all, to bring life back to this deteriorating place.

To us, Flemish, Charleroi has a bad reputation : we see it as the example of all that is wrong in the southern part of our dear country. It is poor, dangerous, dark and gloomy, and corrupt (‘Palermo by the Samber‘). More then 1/4 of the population is unemployed, and has been for years. It is also known as ‘the ugliest city in the world’.

Charleroi is obviously not the most logical tourist destination. But we went anyway.

 

Driving past the center towards the Musée de la Photography made us think, just for a minute or so, that it might not be that bad. Beautiful city villas and mini castles, dating from the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, one next to the other, not all in ruins, witness some of the prosperity the city once had. Only to be put back into reality by the photos of Stephan Vanfleteren -my favorite Belgian photographer- : Touching, dark, hurting and depressive at times, if not always. Confirming our expectations.

Stephan Vanfleteren has a way of getting to people on the edge of society, and to express what he sees in a different way then most photographers. Over the years, he has spend weeks, days, nights, wandering through the town, which he learned to love, meeting with its people. Although poor and unemployed, the Carolos (inhabitants of Charleroi) are extremely friendly and hospitable. And although the situation is still extremely bad, some changes and improvements seem to be coming. Slowly.

 

But also the words in which he describes the city are as catchy as the images.

‘The unemployment numbers are shocking. Nowhere in Belgium the numbers are visually translated into reality. You see it in the streets, the houses, in the bars, the gambling houses… There is a name for it : degradation. You can not only read the misery off the streets, but off the peoples faces. The face of poverty is pale, gloomy, stupefied, it has broken teeth. In the past pneumoconiosis caused early death, today it is alcohol and nicotine that break the adult bodies.’

We had lunch in the center. It had started to drizzle, it was darker and gloomier still. Not the most glamorous way to see any city. It was crowded with people going to the Sunday market, lots of fruits, nicer and fuller then on the market in my town it seemed, and other food, plants, clothes… We didn’t stay long enough to feel the poverty and misery Stephan Vanfleteren found, but honestly, we weren’t really looking. I am no Vanfleteren wannabee, nor am I what we call a ‘disaster tourist’ (ramptourist), enjoying photographing other peoples misery and then quickly go home to forget all about it. I am glad to have seen the exhibition, and what better location could it have been than in the town that is its subject. It certainly is a place with potential, and I can only hope that the situation gradually improves, and thad one day, we can see Charleroi again in its full glory.

If you can’t make it to Charleroi (you should at least try), buy the book :

‘Charleroi, il est claire que le gris est noir, mais Charleroi sera blanc, un jour’, Stephan Vanfleteren. 

exhibition until dec 6, 2015

photos : one of the main square of Charleroi, in front of the ugly church, the others images of the exhibition. 

NB Charleroi is also known as ‘Brussels South’, the Ryan Air hub. It is 50 km from Brussels.

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