ANTWERP.- The photographic image is imbued with stillness. No movement, no sound, no time. But what happens if you add one of these missing elements? The exhibition The Still Point of the Turning World – Between Film and Photography focuses on that rare moment in which a photographer turns towards film or a video artist turns towards photography. What beauty can be found on the border between these two media?

FOMU focuses on the concept of time in an exhibition of video installations and photographs spread across two of the museum’s galleries and featuring the work of 24 artists. In a world inundated with visual stimuli, the artworks invite you to pause at the imagination of everyday life. Many of the works are being shown in Belgium for the first time.

With works by: Morten Barker (DK), Dirk Braeckman (BE), David Claerbout (BE), Manon de Boer (NL), Jason Dee (UK), Nir Evron (IL), Mekhitar Garabedian (BE/SY), Geert Goiris (BE), Paul Graham (UK), Guido Guidi (IT), Mark Lewis (CA), Louis Lumière (FR), Mark Neville (UK), Lisa Oppenheim (US), Raqs Media Collective (IN), John Smith (UK), John Stezaker (UK), Hiroshi Sugimoto (JP), Ana Torfs (BE), Michiel van Bakel (NL), Jeff Wall (CA); and from the FOMU collection: Henri Cartier-Bresson (FR), Eadweard Muybridge (UK) and Duane Michals (US).

Suzy Embo
Artiste photographe – Photographe d’artistes
Artist, photographer, wife… Behind the artist name Suzy Embo (BE, °1936) lies a privileged witness to the post-War Belgian avant-garde. Embo’s abstract images, camera-free experiments, graphic and high-contrast photographs connect her with the Subjektive Fotografie (Subjective Photography) of Otto Steinert, who used pure photographic techniques for the sake of personal expression.

In the 1960s, her work underwent a sea change: from “artiste photographe” to “photographe d’artistes”. Embo befriended Cobra artist Pierre Alechinsky and married the sculptor Reinhoud d’Haese. Alongside her personal artistic work, she trained her lens on the international art scene. The photographer created informal, intimate portraits, recorded artists at work - such as Pierre Alechinsky, Christian Dotremont and Jean Messagier -, collaborated on projects and documented previews, plays, dance performances and other events. The artwork Les Yeux Ouverts (1965) by Alechinsky will also be on display during the exhibition.

FOMU acquired the entire Suzy Embo archive in 1996. We will be revealing this collection for the first time in the form of a retrospective: Suzy Embo. Artiste photographe – Photographe d’artistes, offering the public an impartial look at the post-Cobra period and the rich oeuvre of this unjustly ignored Belgian photographer.

5 Years .tiff
Belgium is bursting with photographic talent. Every day FOMU is inundated with portfolio’s, websites, blogs and photo-books crying out for a wider audience. To respond to this need, FOMU publishes an annual magazine devoted to inspiring young Belgian photographers: .tiff.

.tiff is as unpredictable as Belgian photography itself. The poster-format magazine features a whole gamut of personalities, moods and styles. Every year, the magazine presents 10 promising young Belgian photographers.

Five years after the first edition of .tiff, the magazine has grown into a vibrant platform with an international standing. It offers a taste of the diversity and dynamism of the Belgian photography scene. This summer, we are bringing together all fifty talents who have appeared in .tiff in the past five years, both in the Rivierenhof Park in Antwerp and at FOMU.