Artist
Brahim Tall
Brahim Tall (b. 1993) is a Brussels-based artist. Of Belgian, Dutch and Senegalese heritage, his practice studies the politics and expression of identity, as well as paying homage to nightlife and underground culture. With a BA from LUCA School Of Arts, Tall’s works combine photography with video, installation and elements of performance. Where his BA graduation project, Untitled, questioned his sense of identity as an artist, his later Tukuleur project – reflecting on the experience of coming from an ethnically-mixed household – took the form of a video.
Tukuleur
A body placed, posed, in front of an urban collage. A flat decor made of prints stapled onto recycled wood panels. The prints are photos taken over the years in Belgium, Senegal and New York, among other places, by Brahim Tall himself. Together, they form a sketch of a diaspora. They set the stage for a crucial task: to bring together the body and the image through movement.
From the still image to the moving image. From photography to film.
Behind Tukuleur’s composed mise-en-scène, we can trace a mass grave of one-dimensional representations. The body on screen expresses a clear necessity to animate these static forms, to animate these corpses of art history, to bring life to representation, or, better yet, to move beyond it. With every pose-switch, the Tukuleur body sings one of its thousand possible articulations.
This polyvocal movement, however, is not necessarily liberating in itself. When the director's voice gives distorted instructions, commanding the body to
poseposeposeposeposeposepose, he quite literally highlights the painful interaction with a thousand selves and the physical environment. His interaction seems only to allow a single self at a time, yet also demands a constant adaptation to specific external forces. It seems that with every cut or switch of light (and its consequent switch of skin colour), the power dynamic changes. Is this an agent body expressing its polyvocality? Or is this a jester, compelled to perform endless roles to entertain the static frontal gaze of the camera? The sharp editing instils a rhythm that can be cruel to its onscreen body yet also breathes life into its dance. Tukuleur proves that polyvocal movement is not the definitive answer; it is still in conflict, unresolved, confused. However, as opposed to the undead practice of representation, it is the path that allows complex life.
The format hasn’t changed since the magazine’s inception in 2012. However, the project's scope has expanded significantly – .tiff has evolved into a platform, offering a year-long trajectory of presentations, conversations with experts, and exhibitions. FOMU leverages its extensive network, expertise and resources to stimulate the artists' artistic practices and personal visions.
The selection process involves reaching out to professionals in the Belgian photography scene, as well as to previous participants. This results in a long-list encompassing a diverse range of backgrounds. For this edition, FOMU departed from its usual practice and solicited the expertise of 3 external jurors: Sorana Munsya, independent curator; Anna Planas, artistic director of Paris Photo; and Max Pinckers, .tiff alumnus and artist. Together, we carefully curated a diverse group of artists, always mindful of whether the participants would benefit from our support at this particular juncture in their careers.
This 11th edition of .tiff marks a new beginning with a fresh design, while it also safeguards its strengths. Throughout the years, .tiff has fostered a thriving Belgian photography community that transcends language barriers, enabling rich exchanges of ideas between artists, curators and critics. The current selection exemplifies the continued growth of this community, and Belgian photography’s ability to reinvent itself year after year.