lieve shukrani simoens 

Expo Concrete Body - Lore Stessel 

12 nov 2022-  26 ma 2023 Concertgebouw Brugge 


I wrote the text accompanying the exhibition Concrete Body, the photographic work, of Belgian (Brussels based) photographer and film director Lore Stessel. 


“Zoals een danser in gesprek gaat met zijn omgeving, treedt Belgisch kunstenares Lore Stessel in dialoog met de dans(er). ‘Dans is een taal’, zegt ze. Een taal zonder woorden die verhalen doet ontstaan. In haar eigen woordeloze vocabularium, de camera ter hand, legt ze de dans vast. Ze voegt niets toe, maar laat weg. In Concrete Body vertaalt zich dit in de verwevenheid van haar werk met het Concertgebouw en in de door haar gekozen materialen waarop elk beeld zijn thuis vindt. De fragiliteit van de dans tegenover de betonnen muren. De lichtdoorlatende stoffen tegenover de ruwheid van verre landschappen. Stessel suggereert, maar vult niet in. Ze laat de toeschouwer de vrijheid zijn eigen verhaal in de ruimte te vinden.”

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“ Like a dancer communicating with his surroundings, Belgian artist Lore Stessel enters the dialogue with dance. For ‘Dance is a language’ she says, creating stories without words. Camera in hand, she captures Dance, through her own wordless vocabulary. Stessel rather chooses to leave out, than to add. Creating an openness for new stories to emerge. The dance carries on, as does the conversation. Focusing equally on the encounter, as well as the movement that lies within an encounter, the dialogue.

In Concrete Body, this translates into the intertwining of her work with the Concertgebouw and her choice of materials on which each image found its home. The captivating fragility of the Dance versus the concrete walls. The translucent fabrics versus the harshness of distant lanscapes.

Stessel strings together those moments, stripped of their context, allowing them to regain their meaning. If not new ones. Again, focusing on the dialogue the works enter the conversation with,  wether it being with each other, their surroundings or the viewer. A full body of work. A Dance.
Stessel encourages the viewer to engage and find their own story, without trying to control the whole narrative.”

Lieve Shukrani Simoens