EXPOSITION

NICK HANNES

Chalampé, photographies installées en extérieur

Cette série se concentre sur l'impact de l'industrie du divertissement sur le développement de Dubai et met en valeur divers aspects du style de vie de cette ville caractérisé par l'hédonisme et le luxe. Le vivre ensemble a fait place au divertissement constant, à l’attraction généralisée. Dubaï représente bien la manière dont notre monde globalisé se transforme en une société de l’attraction, mais de manière inégalitaire. Dans cette société même l'espace public peut-être privatisé ; des centres commerciaux simulent l'espace public sur un terrain privé. Cette nouvelle urbanité, caractérisée par des espaces intérieurs artificiels, est le décor de cette approche documentaire critique.

Après avoir travaillé comme photojournaliste pendant 8 ans, Nick Hannes a décidé de se concentrer pleinement à des projets documentaires auto-initiés. Son travail a une forte composante politique et sociale et traite souvent de la relation problématique que nous entretenons avec notre environnement. Son style se caractérise par l'utilisation de l'ironie, de l'ambiguïté et des métaphores visuelles. Il a publié trois livres : Red Journey (2009), Tradities (2011) et Mediterranean, The Continuity of Man (2014). Sa nouvelle série Dubai Bread and Circuses a reçu le Magnum Photography Award en 2017. Nick Hannes expose régulièrement dans des festivals internationaux, tels que Lodz (Pologne), Photomed (Beyrouth), FotoIstanbul, Organ Vida (Zagreb).


Nick Hannes focuses on the impact of the entertainment industry on the development of Dubai and emphasises various aspects of the lifestyle of this city characterised by hedonism and luxury. Community life has embraced constant entertainment, widespread attraction. Dubai is a good example of the way in which our globalised world is changing into a society of attraction, but in a non-egalitarian manner. In this society even public space can be privatised; shopping malls simulate public space on private property. This new urban world, characterised by artificial interior spaces, is the backdrop of this critical documentary approach.

He’s graduated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent in 1997. For the next eight years he worked as a photojournalist, making reportages in the Balkans and the Middle East, primarily on the Kurdish issue. In 2006 he quit doing press assignments, in order to fully concentrate on his own documentary projects. He left for a one year round trip by bus and train through the former Soviet Union. This resulted in his first book, Red Journey (Lannoo Publishers, 2009), which deals with the transitional phase in post-communist society. ‘Red Journey’ laid the foundation of his photographic approach, in which irony, ambiguity and visual metaphors play prominent roles. Most of his personal work has a strong political and social component. In 2010 he started ‘Mediterranean. The Continuity of Man’, a project that involved twenty trips to 21 Mediterranean countries over four years of time. This series juxtaposes parallel realities and paradoxes of the Mediterranean region, focusing on various contemporary issues such as mass-tourism, urbanization, migration, conflict and crises of various kinds. ‘Mediterranean.  He's currently working on a project about consumerism, recreation and artificial urban development in Dubai. ‘Dubai. Bread and Circuses’ (working title) will be launched in 2018. He exhibited at Thessaloniki Biennial for Contemporary Art, Museum of Photography (Antwerp), Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels), Flanders Center (Osaka, Japan), Breda Photo (Breda, NL), Foto Festiwal Lodz (Poland), PhotoMed (Sanary-sur-Mer, France and Beirut), Head On (Sydney), Athens Photo Festival, Centro Andaluz de la Fotografia (Almeria), CajaGranada, Foto Istanbul among others.