My Flat Land
26.06.2015
04.10.2015
On photography and landscape
This summer, FoMu takes you on a visual journey through unspoiled nature and poses the question: Is it possible to recreate the sensation of hiking within the walls of a museum? When we go for a walk, we experience a succession of impressions that melt almost imperceptibly into each other. The exhibition My Flat Land is a photographic montage that features works from 1856 to 2015 by over 50 artists from Belgium and abroad.
The ambivalence of landscape is at the heart of the exhibition, from safe haven to an experience of the sublime. Rather than a presentation of contemporary or historic points of view, the exhibition is conceived as an associative tour through nature. The only human presence is that of the photographer, who attempts to capture a personal vision of the natural scenery. Can an artist hold their own in such a poetic encounter with the elements?
Music lovers will recognise the reference to Jacques Brel in the title of this exhibition. Alongside the tribute to Brel’s lush ode to the Low Countries, flat also refers to an inevitable physical characteristic of photography. A photograph is a two-dimensional object on to which we project desires and expectations. The summer exhibition is thus more of a hymn to the romantic landscapes of our hearts and imaginations than to the actual Flemish countryside.
With work by Ansel Adams (US), Francis Alÿs (BE), Frères Bisson (FR), Paul Bogaers (NL), Dirk Braeckman (BE), Anna Collette (US), Armand Dandoy (BE), Michiel De Cleene (BE), Misha de Ridder (NL), Babs Decruyenaere (BE), Thomas Demand (DE), Chloe Dewe Mathews (UK), Constant Dullaart (NL), Gilbert Fastenaekens (BE), Joan Fontcuberta (ES), Anne Geene (NL), Geert Goiris (BE), Yann Gross (CH), Michiel Hendryckx (BE), David Horvitz (US), William Henry Jackson (US), Adam Jeppesen (DK), Jan Kempenaers (BE), Mark Klett (US), Robert Knoth & Antoinette de Jong (NL), Alvin Langdon Coburn (US), Gustave Le Gray (FR), Jochen Lempert (DE), Albéric Lunden (BE), Robert Macpherson (UK), Michèle Matyn (BE), Andreas Mühe (DE), Asako Narahashi (JP), Bruno Roels (BE), Henning Rogge (DE), Arno Roncada (BE), Thomas Ruff (DE), Hans-Christian Schink (DE), Charles T. Scowen (UK), Liam Singelyn (BE), Berndnaut Smilde (NL), Dominique Somers (BE), Alfred Stieglitz (US), Thomas Struth (DE), Hiroshi Sugimoto (JP), William Henry Fox Talbot (UK), James Valentine (UK), Awoiska van der Molen (NL), Corinne Vionnet (CH), Robert Voit (DE), Ester Vonplon (CH), Charles Waldack (BE), Carleton E. Watkins (US), Edward Weston (US), Emma Wieslander (SE) and Masao Yamamoto (JP).
Curators: Maarten Dings and Joachim Naudts
Photo: Avalanche at Night (proposal for a picture) from the series: Peaceful Mountains of Desire © Arno Roncada, 2009