During the 10th edition of BredaPhoto we also host the BredaPhoto Residency. BredaPhoto invited seven talented alumni from the participating art academies to participate in the Residency Programme 2022. During six weeks they work together in the same space on their individual projects. At the end of these six weeks, from 20 to 23 October, they will show their work in their group exhibition Station.
The old monastery in Breda is their home during the residency and their workplace is above the exhibition at Central Station Breda (address: Stationsplein 42). The intention of the residency is to make new work within the theme of the festival. During the six weeks BredaPhoto provides a programme of masterclasses and artist dinners for our residents.
The participants of 2022 are:
Ugo Woatzi (Graduated at Luca Arts Sint Lukas)
Jonas Beerts (Graduated at KASK Gent)
Noémi Szécsi (Graduated at MOME Budapest)
Fabien Silvestre Suzor (Graduated at KASK Antwerpen)
Katja Aßfalg (Graduated at FH Bielefeld)
Joëlle Dewinter (Graduated at Luca Arts Narafi, Brussels)
Sonja Luesing (Graduated at St. Joost, Breda)
Read more about their projects below.
Misophonia is a little-known syndrome in which certain sounds or visual cues trigger strong negative emotional reactions. In her work It hurts, Katja Aßfalg explores those negative emotions and gives an insight into triggering moments by featuring testimonials written by those who experience Misophonia.
Katja Aßfalg (Germany, she/her) graduated from FH Bielefeld. She is interested in the individual, in interaction with society, and how we perceive the world.
2022 (prototype) is a prototypal landscape-machine on game board scale. It speculates a state of affairs that is built on the ruins of the past, balances on the flip side of the present, and tumbles into the future. It consists of three main players: First, the realm of big tech
companies, invisibly controlling everyday day life through algorithms. Second, daily life itself, where apple juice and apple pies celebrate homeliness. And finally, the earth, that has come to boiling point and is getting back at the creatures that live on it, pulling them inside, and digesting them.
Jonas Beerts (Belgium, he/him) graduated from KASK Gent. He has been a bricoleur of images since forever. Lately, his head tends to always drift away, and he likes to invite people to follow it.
Growing up with her autistic brother, Sonja Luesing wanted to learn more about autism and question her own perspective of this topic. In her work, I treasure your hugs, she depicts the life, personal relationships, and daily struggles of autistic people in today’s society as seen from a sibling’s perspective.
Sonja Luesing (the Netherlands, she/her) graduated from St. Joost in Breda. As a documentary photographer she has always been attracted to the formation of identity.
In Ensemble 2022 (working title) Fabien Silvestre Suzor presents a collection of metal framed portraits scattered around the exhibition space. This new body of work focuses on a variety of people with different functions and positions within the art industry. In an attempt to analyse what is contributing to his own artistic production, the artist started to document different actors influencing his practice through portraiture. The models are photographed in a democratic way, without hierarchy, along with the mention of their names and job.
Fabien Silvestre Suzor (France, he/him) is a French artist living and working in Brussels. He graduated from an MA in photography from the Royal Academy of Art of Antwerp. His work often emerges from analysing the specificities of a given space or territory using different materials in his installations.
In her work, Noémi Szécsi portrays women who believe in everyday signs, in their ability to control their own destiny, and in their knowledge of a world invisible to the uninitiated. Alongside the details of the reality their experience, Noémi presents imagery where the word “witch” is just an adjective. It is encompassing the pain of centuries of suffering, the resulting subordination within society, and the power of women who have endured vulnerability.
Noémi Szécsi (Romania, she/her) graduated from Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest. She is interested in women who have experienced great emotional depths and who have found their spiritual strength in the various forms of witchcraft.
Often, we reduce the unknown to the known in our need for understanding. Based on limited perceptions we construct meaningful wholes whereby we readily fill in the blanks. Joëlle Dewinter offers in her series Chance an alternative, drawing attention to our potential to embrace ‘essence’ in the world that surrounds us when we are actually lost.
Joëlle Dewinter (Belgium, she/her) graduated from Narafi, LUCA School of Arts in Brussels. She profoundly believes in the fragility and power of beauty. For her, images are stories with an open invitation to visitors to involve themselves in the encounter.
In this installation Queerutopia, Ugo Woatzi refers to the possibilities of creating utopian spaces as a response to oppressive patriarchal structures. The images were captured from different natural environments where they spent time as a kid. Built as a dreamlike pantheon, the work represents diverse spirits, bodies, and creatures. Based on stories and memories from their childhood, Ugo imagined this space as a queer, spiritual, and care process.
Soundscape by Mélodie Blaison
Ugo Woatzi (France, he/they) is a queer visual artist, he graduated from LUCA School of Arts in Brussels. Through a personal, collective, and political approach, he focuses on the concepts of visibilities, spaces, and masculinities in our heteronormative societies.
