The third Molenbeek Photography Biennale, more than ever, rooted in Molenbeek

The latest Molenbeek Photography Biennale has more than one surprise in store: not only does it move beyond the castle grounds, but it also fosters a direct dialogue between artists and the neighborhood.

We have come to associate the sumptuous decor of the Karreveld Castle, with its tangle of corridors and intimate rooms, with the Biennale de la Photographie de Molenbeek. The new edition, however, has a surprise in store for us.

First and foremost, it is leaving the grounds of the castle to reach out and touch the neighbourhood: at La Maison des Cultures et de la Cohésion Sociale de Molenbeek and at LionCity, a temporary project on the site of the former Delhaize distribution centre between the Beekkant and Ossegem/Osseghem metro stations.

Moreover, the Biennale is no longer content to merely shine a light on the fascinating names in Belgian photography within the neighbourhood. It is engaging its photographers, their sensitivity, the poetry of their vision, in a genuine interaction with Molenbeek. Now, they express themselves through the neighbourhood, and the result is surprising.

Ambassadors

Ivan Put installed an open-air photography studio in the heart of Molenbeek, in the middle of summer. The initiative was strikingly simple: a white screen, made from a gigantic sheet of stretched paper, mobile and easy to set up wherever the opportunity arose. An entire population filed by before the lens. It became evident that there are as many ways to be Molenbeekois as there are inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

In the outside world, Molenbeek is often perceived in a homogenous, frequently negative manner, but the opposite is true of the image here. Although every individual has their own look, determined by their culture, beliefs, or tendencies, there is one thing that unites them all, no matter what age they are: their smile. They are happy to play along, to be part of the great canvas that is Brussels, to become ambassadors for their neighbourhood.

Anne-Sophie Costenoble, a sensitive photographer, wanders through Molenbeek as if she is keeping an intimate journal. She records her tremulous impressions, born in half-light: doors pushed open, furtive silhouettes she passes, clues left by Molenbeekois along her path. The images, though inextricably tied to Molenbeek, also reveal an inner hypersensitivity.

The duo Justine Menghini and Hugo Istace, recently graduated from the Le 75 school of photography, dive into the world of Park van Lijn 28/Parc de la Ligne 28. The park occupies the site of a former railway that once connected the Brussel-Zuid/Bruxelles-Midi and Schaarbeek/Schaerbeek stations.

After the railway tracks were abandoned, the land was converted into a green space for the use of the inhabitants of the surrounding areas. Menghini and Istace capture the soul of the park in vivid tonalities of black and white. They seek to mark out the contours of its identity, its landscapes, and its unique flora, as well as encountering the people who frequent the park, with whom they chatted and swapped thoughts at length.

“There are cities whose gems seem extravagant or flashy, and others, like Molenbeek, where the diamond lies within, understated and serene,” Arnaud Matagne, the curator of the exhibition, summarises delicately.