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Jan Kempenaers
Belgian Colonial Monuments
ISBN: 9789492811509
(PB - E/ NL)
€
Perhaps we don't give it much thought anymore, but the truth is that there are a considerable number of monuments in Belgian public space that commemorate Belgium's colonial past. Jan Kempenaers selected and photographed around forty of them. As a whole, these could be looked at as an inventory, a collection of images once placed as self-justification of the system. However, Jan Kempenaers is no archivist or documentary photographer, rather he is an artist on a quest for the ultimate image.
Kempenaers does not make stationary portraits confirming their legitimacy, instead the series calls their status into question. What more do these images tell us today about the past? Do they still belong in the Belgian public space?
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