‘Transparences liquides’ to Examine Image-Making and Visual Perception in Brussels

Espace Photographique Contretype in Brussels will present ‘Transparences liquides’, a group exhibition bringing together Anne-Camille Allueva, Matan Mittwoch, Laure Tiberghien and Emmanuel Van der Auwera. The exhibition will examine how visual perception is shaped by the accelerating circulation of images, focusing on the relationship between space, duration and attention. It will run from 10 September through 6 December 2026, with an opening reception scheduled for 10 September at 5pm.

The exhibition is curated by Francesco Biasi and Nathalie Giraudeau. It was previously presented at the CPIF (Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France) from 25 January to 22 May 2026, before its Brussels presentation at Contretype. The institution’s programme includes exhibitions, residencies, events, mediation and editions, and its Brussels venue offers free admission.

For Contretype, Anne-Camille Allueva has created new three-dimensional sculptures built from polarising filters and light sources. The works isolate a technical layer normally hidden within screens, drawing attention to the role of mediation in the production of the visible. As visitors move around the sculptures, the image changes according to the body’s position, becoming unstable and relational rather than fixed. The installation extends Allueva’s material-based practice, which focuses on manipulating materials and distorting light.

Matan Mittwoch’s contribution includes ‘TELE’ (2025), a monumental inkjet print measuring 213 by 160 centimetres. The work photographs the rough interior of a cardboard tube used for photographic paper, producing an image that refers to tunnel vision—the tendency to focus on a single narrative at the expense of a broader context. In the exhibition’s account, the work treats light as both an instrument of information and a source of blindness, narrowing rather than expanding the field of vision. It is positioned as a conceptual counterpoint to Nancy Holt’s ‘Sun Tunnels’ (1973–76), in which the body and the sun are aligned within a larger spatial order.

Laure Tiberghien’s works are unique photographic prints made without a camera, using photosensitive paper, chemistry, light and chance. For the new series ‘Moon I’, ‘Moon II’ and ‘Moon III’ (2025), she used blown-glass spheres known as ‘Pierres de lune’ to shape the light, while intervening during development to produce sharply defined boundaries. The large-scale works, made in vibrant shades of green, are intended to reveal further nuances and layers of chiaroscuro the longer they are viewed, setting a slow and attentive mode of looking against the speed and volume of contemporary image consumption.

Emmanuel Van der Auwera will present ‘Memento 59 (Capitol Black)’ and ‘Videosculpture XXVIII’, works that address images of the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The first uses offset plates—originally associated with newspaper printing—to fix an image of a rioting crowd. The second projects video footage through a screen sculpture whose polarising filters have been removed. The exhibition also includes several new works from 2025 that incorporate the influence of image-generation algorithms and question photorealism’s status as a guarantee of truth. ‘Transparences liquides’ will be on view at Cité Fontainas 4A, Brussels, from 10 September to 6 December 2026.