24/11 -16/3
4 locations, 8 exhibitions
PHOTO | BRUT BXL is a project of exhibitions and multidisciplinary events coordinated by the Centre d’Art Brut et Contemporain La « S » Grand Atelier1 (Vielsalm) in collaboration with Bruno Decharme, collector and founder of abcd-art brut in Paris, and 4 partner organisations based in Brussels: CENTRALE for contemporary art, Botanique, Art et marges museum and Tiny Gallery.
In 2019, the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles hosted the exhibition PHOTO | BRUT collection Bruno Decharme & compagnie, which was picked up in 2021 by New York’s American Folk Art Museum. In 2022, Bruno Decharme and Anne-Françoise Rouche (La “S” Grand Atelier) wanted to reveal other facets of “outsider photography” through recent works by a hundred artists.
PHOTO | BRUT BXL includes exhibitions, installations, workshops, performances, two study days, and new publications. The programme is based on the theme of “raw photography”. Through photographs, photomontages or photocollages, these creators, generally self-taught, reveal their personal universes through works produced outside conventional artistic circuits. This little-explored field of research on outsider art opens up a path towards innovative practices in the field of photography, thus contributing to renewing the way this medium is seen. This project thus questions the role of the collector, his or her power over the categorisation of “raw” or “outsider” creators, as well as photography.
In the context of the project PHOTO | BRUT BXL, CENTRALE presents 200 photographs from the PHOTO | BRUT collection Bruno Decharme & compagnie exhibited in Arles. True to its programming principles, the art center of the City of Brussels has also invited Brussels-based artist Angel Vergara for an open and unique dialogue with Bruno Decharme. For this project he was inspired by filmed portraits that the director Bruno Decharme dedicated to the creators of his collection.
Botanique is delighted to host PHOTO | BRUT #2, Bruno Decharme collection. This exhibition will feature some recent works, offering an unprecedented insight into this unconventional form of photography. In the Galerie, Botanique invites visitors to explore the boundaries of Outsider Art through two successive exhibitions. The first showcases Barnabé Mons’ KITSCH CATCH photographic collection, while the second sheds light on the work of Brussels-based photographer Katherine Longly with her project To Tell My Real Intentions, I Want To Eat Only Haze Like a Hermit, which examines the relationships with food and the body in the unique Japanese social environment.
Simultaneously, the Art et marges museum presents the monographic exhibition Jean-Marie Massou (1950-2020), a creator of outsider art who lived in total isolation in a forest in the Lot, dug underground galleries, engraved rocks, recorded sound laments and made numerous photographic collages. The museum also presents two collaborative projects resulting from encounters between outsider artists and contemporary artists based on the photographic medium. These projects are directed by Brussels-based photographer Vincen Beeckman.
The Tiny Gallery, the small-scale museum of amateur photography, located at a stone's throw from Place Flagey, completes the programme with the exhibition Spontaneous-Amateur Photography 1860-1930. A selection of tintypes, cyanotypes and albumen prints testifies to amateur practice, whether intentional or accidental, with magical moments allowing us an intimate insight into the lives of strangers who lived over a century ago.
PRATICAL INFORMATION: PHOTO | BRUT BXL
@ CENTRALE |hall
CENTRALE for contemporary art
Place Sainte-Catherine 45, 1000 Brussels
WED > SUN 10:30 > 18:00
