FOMU EN

His point of departure is a nineteenth-century photo album from the FOMU collection. This album contains ten portraits of Congolese men, women and children, who were exhibited in the human zoo at the Antwerp International Exposition of 1885.

While we often consider a photo to be a moment frozen in time, Haizel sees it differently, as living material. He directs his focus to the deeply hidden organic processes playing out in these old albumin prints. By making bacteria, fungi and chemical processes visible, he reactivates these static images to tell a different story.

In this way, Haizel breaks with old, fixed patterns of how we think about our colonial past. He liberates the photographed persons from the prison of history and allows them to speak in a new, more layered voice. A unique cross-fertilisation of science, history and visual art that challenges you to look again. 

FOMU x Thinking Tools

FOMU creates space for new and different perspectives, inviting organisations and collectives to engage in interventions and collaborations. In 2024, Kelvin Haizel was a guest of the research group Thinking Tools (KASKA). The results of his three-month residency are now being shown at FOMU.

About Kelvin Haizel

Dr. Kelvin Haizel (1987, Ghana) researches the boundaries of photography and the material power of the image. In his work, he often focuses on the transformation of archival images by microbial processes. He has exhibited across the globe, including at documenta 15, and last year received a doctorate in the arts at KNUST in Kumasi.