Urban Reflections: 7 artists - 7 proposals



Last Friday we went to the opening of Urban Reflections at the Zaal De Maalbeek. We were invited by Michael Chia, one of the organizers and we got impressed with the warm ambiance and big concurrence we found there. Also impressed about the particular and personal point of view of the different artists about urban life.

Urban Reflections presents 7 photographers who have now called Brussels their home city. This is their personal “take” on the urban environment and a reflection of their daily perceptions.

   

The urban world is expanding. Half the world’s population is building a new sense of belonging within this tightly compressed landscape. With globalisation and instantaneous access to information, cultural and social interactions have become at once more immediate and complex. This is further challenged by the diversity of religions, lifestyles, cultures and ethnic groups. To keep some form of personal identity, urbanised individuals have brought their personal values from their different backgrounds to this new urban world.

Contemporary life in an ever-expanding city, with more and more intricate forms of communication, requires new ways of constructing relationships and sharing communal space that also satisfies our need for privacy. In the end, what we are really looking for is a sense of rural intimacy in a crowded modern city.

 

You won’t find “cliché” shots in this exhibition. The camera was simply an instrument to project the photographers’ expressive thoughts to an outside world. The viewer is invited to share a moment with them in the private spaces they have created for themselves.

They may appear to be a simple collection to the non-initiate, but the images presented are a result of group work and inner soul searching. The intention was not to have the photographers work within set rules, the purpose was to let their personalities express themselves without inhibition or restriction and if, in the process, some common photography rules were broken, so be it.

  

Info:

Urban Reflections
21/04/07 - 16/05/07

Gemeenschapscentrum De Maalbeek
Zaal De Maalbeek
Hoornstraat 97 Rue du Cornet
1040 Etterbeek

Click HERE to find out where the exhibition takes place and how to get there.

The seven photographers are:

SUSANA BRAZ — Portugal
BIANCA BUSUIOC — Romania
NEIL CAMPBELL — UK
STEFAN ECKHOFF — Germany
CONSTANTINOS — Greece
NEIL MACLEAN — UK
OANA UIOREAN — Romania

DE MAALBEEK WEBSITE

Website about the exhibition