Isabelle is 24 … Isabelle is 42

Often described as a “photographer without a camera,” Katrien de Blauwer (Belgium, 1969) mainly uses collage. Her working method is spontaneous and shows the visual artist’s passion for constructing images. Her work always evokes a female figure whose faded image in a magazine harkens back to a bygone era. The artist cuts and disfigures published photographs, she then glues them, sometimes adding a touch of paint. A narrative is then created from the raw material coming from vintage magazines whose images the artist likes recycling. It is through these iconographic snap shots that Katrien de Blauwer’s intimate thoughts are revealed. The artist has a real fascination for these glossy creatures. She retains body fragments, but no faces or eyes, leaving us total freedom for interpretation.

At the invitation of MBAL, the artist developed two parallel narratives, where two moments of life are revealed. They evoke female seduction, with a hardly recognizable male figure in whose position the viewers are placed. There is something disturbing in these scenes, Something reminiscent of voyeurism, an atmosphere similar to that of film noir or Nouvelle Vague cinema. Katrien de Blauwer uses photographs from magazines found in flea markets to create new narratives in which female figures reveal themselves while remaining elusive.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Gallery Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris.