‘We’re all born naked’
Jaouad Alloul x Bart Ramakers
Who was there first? The chicken or the egg? Anyway, it was in Bornem during their curatorship for the “Liaisons Dangereuses” expo (Chateau d’Ursel, 2024) that they met: theatre-maker/musician/writer Jaouad Alloul and photographer Bart Ramakers. Creative sparks jumped immediately.
Bart had long played with the idea of working around the image of the Devil from the tarot: the fallen angel, the bearer of light, the demon that binds us in lust and desire, but who also strives with us to return to the higher, the transcendent, spirituality, light. The idea of doing something around Lucifer excited Jaouad immensely, but he gladly added Sandro Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’ and Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Homo Universalis’ as sources of inspiration. This created an intriguing triptych in which lust and desire (the demonic in man), man himself as the measure of the universe (uomo universale) and, finally, love as an all-conquering force balance and reinforce each other.
The result is a triptych between dream, reality & fantasy. A heartwarming contemporary story of body positivity, one love, self-acceptance and inclusiveness.
The proceeds of this creative collaboration will go to Punt vzw, advice and information centre for sexually transgressive behaviour.
The exhibition UOMO continues at Galerie P. during the
International Photo Biennal Ostend 2023 from 16 September to 12 November,
Wednesday – Friday 14 – 18 h, Saturday – Sunday 11 – 18 h.
Running in parallel is the exhibition ‘Joel Peter Witkin : Staging Stories’,
which also has a counterpart at Fort Napoleon (curator: Stephane Verheye).
Madridstraat 2
(corner Marie-Joséplein, first floor)
8400 Oostende
