l’ombre des belges

L’Ombre des Belges by Bram Van Stappen is a visual exploration that defies traditional narrative and linear logic, instead embracing fragmented, textured imagery. L’Ombre des Belges confronts themes of materiality, cultural artifacts, identity, etc. Through a series of mostly paired images, L’Ombre des Belges evokes a world where objects, nature, and human presence intertwine but never resolve. The work dismantles conventional hierarchies, presenting axes like surface vs. texture or natural vs. cultural not as fixed, but as fluid and ever-changing.

The series questions the nature of the images themselves, offering no clear topography or typology. Instead, it’s an ongoing negotiation, where surface, texture, and materiality evoke history’s remnants and cultural codes without succumbing to simple visual closure. Each image pulses with presence and absence, creating a sequence where the form is continually unmade and remade. In L’Ombre des Belges, the photos don’t merely document; they challenge the viewer to look beyond what is immediately visible, confronting reality’s fragile, layered, and shifting nature.