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                  Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer at the Centre Bang

                  News

                  As part of a partnership between the BPS22 and the CALQ (Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec), the artist Barbara Salomé is in residence, from August to November 2024, at the Centre Bang, a contemporary art centre in Saguenay (Quebec). During this time, she is continuing her interdisciplinary research and experiments on the foundational myths of our civilisation.

                  In this residency, Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer is further developing her ideas for a project called the Laboratoire des nouvelles mythologies. This project, which spans both research and transdisciplinary experiments on our foundational myths, questions the stories we tell, the language used to tell them, and their influence on how we shape society.

                  Specifically, the artist is working on a series of photographs titled Et si Bernadette avait rêvé l’obscur, which began in Belgium and is being continued in Quebec, where she's looking for replicas of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. She is also experimenting with and exploring new forms of artistic expression for the Manifesto of the Laboratoire des nouvelles mythologies.

                  Her research, connected to the region, begins with the etymology of the Chicoutimi River’s name, “Saguenay”. She was struck by one possible translation: “Up to where the water is deep”. For the artist, the depth of the water, a dark and unknown place, becomes a fertile ground for creativity, resonating directly with the concept of “inner power” that Starhawk discusses in her book Dreaming the Dark, which has influenced the artist since 2020.

                  Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer is documenting the river through photography and delving into the region’s historical archives. She explores water’s symbolism as a source of primordial life, a vessel of planetary memory, and a spiritual figure. More specifically, she focuses on the Chicoutimi River as a body that has been entirely dominated and artificially controlled by the hydroelectric industry for over a century.

                  You can follow Barbara’s work on herwebsite andInstagram account.

                  Artistic approach

                  Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer is a multidisciplinary artist working in photography, film, installation, and performance. In her ecofeminist laboratory, she develops a polymorphic artistic and political practice, convinced that to inhabit the world differently, we must tell its stories differently. Her creative process draws on cross-disciplinary research in history, sociology, and philosophy through a gendered lens, grounding her narratives in new relationships with the world imbued with spirituality. She explores the connections between body and earth, freely inspired by ecofeminist ideas and their neopagan dimensions, expressed through performance, gatherings, or collective projects.

                  I see my artistic practice as ongoing research. Born from a sense of powerlessness in the face of the earth’s destruction and the principle of domination upon which our society is built, it serves as a vehicle for a desire to think beyond the nature-culture divide. By questioning my relationship with the earth, I realised I was disconnected from both it and my own body. Seeking to understand why, I began researching gender relations, feminisms, and ecology. I became interested in the origins of power dynamics, and within the ecofeminist movement, I found a relevant analogy between the exploitation of nature and gendered systems of domination. This has allowed me to reflect on both the various oppressive systems in our societies and current ecological issues.

                  Biography

                  Barbara Salomé Felgenhauer studied photography at ESA Saint-Luc in Liège (2013) and ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels, where she graduated with high distinction and the Fondation Boghossian Prize in 2022. Her work has been exhibited in Belgium (BPS22, Jewish Museum of Belgium, ISELP, Hangar Art Center, La Boverie, Satellite Gallery – BIP Liège, Pianofabriek, Fondation 312, Vanderborght Space, Halles Saint-Géry, LAB-AN/Hôtel van Eetvelde, Mommen Studios), France (FRAC Franche-Comté, Voies Off at the Arles Photography Festival, Promenade Photographique de Vendôme), and Italy (L’Asilo Napoli). Her photographs are part of the public collections of BPS22, urban.brussels, and the Arthothèque of the Province of Liège.

                  Since 2016, she has also worked as a photographer for the Inventory of Movable Heritage of the Brussels-Capital Region. For the 2023 Art Nouveau year, she created the Héritières project in collaboration with urban.brussels, acting as artistic director and photographer to offer a more contemporary and feminist vision of heritage. From September 2023 to June 2024, she worked as a socio-artistic project manager at the Liège Cultural Centre – Les Chiroux and as mediator and public participation coordinator for the Biennale de l’Image Possible in Liège. Since 2020, she has led various workshops, notably at Escalpade Special School in Wavre, Huy Cultural Centre, ESP Maritime in Molenbeek, and React By Design at the University of Antwerp. She is currently pursuing a master’s specialisation in gender studies at UCL.

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                  • Calq noir