Zeno X Gallery has the pleasure to announce a new solo exhibition by the Belgian artist Dirk Braeckman (°1958, Eeklo). Twentyseven.one.seven brings a new ensemble of works in which his quest for abstraction, tactility and uniqueness is expressed in an even more pronounced manner than before. This is manifested not only in the finished work, but forms part of the creation process itself, for which his dark room is transformed into a field of experimentation in which the artist manipulates the paper, working with the materiality of the picture, revealing influences of chance and time. The artist avoids images that are over-reasoned and opts for the unpredictable. Freedom and spontaneity therefore become essential notions in his creative process. He always carries a camera with him, not only during his travels but also when he wanders around in Ghent, where he lives and works. 

Braeckman is never searching for images, he simply notices things and finds images in what surrounds him. Even if, sometimes, there are long periods of time – months, sometimes years – before he prints the images, his state of mind remains the same as in the moment when he first took the picture. Both these stages in the creation of his work are equally important to the artist. Although he has made a number of digital images for this exhibition, his focus nevertheless remains on the analogue image. For twentyseven.one.seven, he manipulates the print and modifies it to the extent where there can be only one final image: no other prints can be made from the same negative to resemble it. The artist questions one of the main characteristics of the medium, its reproducibility, by creating a unique image. It is no secret that Braeckman also painted during his studies. He is not a photographer in the full sense of the word; instead he seeks out the boundaries of other disciplines. Photography, for him, is a tool rather than a goal in itself.

“In his most recent works, Braeckman bridges the gap to his artistic beginnings on various levels: In the middle of the 1980s he started with the creation of unique photographic images. He definitely had the intention to undermine the medium’s conventions, such as, for example, its reproducibility. But the connection to rather expressive painterly techniques from that time is not so obvious anymore. Nowadays, Dirk Braeckman expands the photographic medium to the point where it becomes rather akin to the practice of a sculptor. In an often physically demanding way he works in the dark room with the chemicals and other items found in his studio, such as dust and other rather unexpected materials. What is particularly remarkable is his use of one of the most basic elements in the photographic process, the light: it can certainly be said that Dirk Braeckman is manipulating and essentially sculpting the light. He transcends this technical framework by creating unique images: to do so he even appropriates parts of his own oeuvre, for example by repeatedly using the same negative. The result is a series of ‘original versions’ with which he expands his visual universe toward the inside. By establishing work of such paradoxical characteristics, Braeckman takes a further and highly contemporary step in his practice, which is unceasingly devoted to a highly personal deconstruction of the photographic medium.” (Martin Germann)

Braeckman’s work is highly subjective and evades the conventions of documentary photography, yet remains highly autobiographical. Even though his images are often deprived of human figures, his own personality and thoughts are very present. In his work we can distinguish several themes: female nudes, curtains, empty corners in rooms, walls, abandoned hotel rooms, etc. His images are intriguing and suggestive. They raise more questions than they answer.

Currently his installation Anonymous / Dirk Braeckman / /Schwarzschild is on view at S.M.A.K., Ghent. Jan Hoet invited Braeckman a few months ago to create the campaign image of a new large-scale urban exhibition entitled ‘The Sea’ in Ostend, in collaboration with Philippe Van Den Bossche. Works of the artist will also be on view in this exhibition. Braeckman has also been commissioned to make works for A.F. Vandevorst, Louis Vuitton and Queen Paola.

Braeckman has had solo exhibitions at Museum M in Leuven (BE), De Appel in Amsterdam (NL), Kunsthalle Erfurt (DE) and Fotohof Salzburg (AT). His work was part of several group exhibitions such as Upside Down at the Cultural Centre in Strombeek (BE), BAZAAR Belgium in the Central for Contemporary Art in Brussels (BE), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), Antoine Watteau BOZAR Brussels (BE), Sint-Jan in Ghent (BE) and Robbrecht & Daem: Pacing through Architecture at the Whitechapel Gallery in London (GB). Works of Braeckman are permanently on view at the Concertgebouw in Bruges and the Ghent courthouse.

Work of the artist can be found in the following public collections: Artothèque in Annecy (FR), Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris (FR), Centro Fotografia de la Universidad Salamanca (ES), De Pont in Tilburg (NL), Fondation national d’art contemporain in Paris (FR), Fotomuseum in Antwerp (BE), FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk (FR), FRAC Rhône -Alpes in Villerbanne (FR), Haags Gemeentemuseum (NL), MACs Hornu (BE), Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (FR), Musée d’Art Contemporain et Moderne in Strasbourg (FR), Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi (BE), Musée de l’ Elysée in Lausanne (FR), Musee Niepce in Chalon-sur-Saône (FR), MUHKA in Antwerp (BE), Mu.ZEE in Ostend (BE), Royal Palace in Brussels (BE), Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels (BE), and SMAK in Ghent (BE).