Artist
Lucas Leffler
Lucas Leffler was born in Virton, Belgium, in 1993. Nominated for Futures by FOMU, he currently lives and works in Brussels.
Lucas Leffler revisits the past. Starting with stories rooted in reality, his projects focus on silver as a source of inspiration and discovery.
Zilverbeek (or Silver Stream) (2017–2020) is a dreamlike investigation of a man who collects mud from a stream in order to extract the precious white metal from it. The silver was the result of years of photosensitive emulsions being discharged into the water from the Agfa-Gevaert factory. The artist documents, deconstructs then reconstructs, history, brilliantly reshaping time and our perception of it to give us an oblique look at photographic materials.
His second work, Crescent (2019–2020), is a speculative study of the scientific and esoteric significance of silver. Here, the artist delves into something that fascinates him: the moon’s influence on the metal. His attempts to synthesise it result in photograms of sculptural objects and the sky — as though the heavens were being radiographed.
For Lucas Leffler, the shoot provides tangible evidence that a fantastical story — the pretext and context for his journeys — is true. He subjects this evidence to an experimental process involving chemicals and manipulation of the film and the subjects, thus creating a synthetic version of reality: one that transcends facts, muddies the path, and allows viewers to come to their own conclusions.
- Text by Emilia Genuardi (.TIFF)
Zilverbeek (or Silver Stream)
Zilverbeek (or Silver Stream) (2017–2020) is a dreamlike investigation of a man who collects mud from a stream in order to extract the precious white metal from it. The silver was the result of years of photosensitive emulsions being discharged into the water from the Agfa-Gevaert factory. The artist documents, deconstructs then reconstructs, history, brilliantly reshaping time and our perception of it to give us an oblique look at photographic materials.
Crescent
Crescent is a speculative investigation on the scientific and esoteric significance of silver element.
Motivated by a fascination for the materiality of chemistry and minerals, this work aims to reveal this bivalent nature, akin the photographic process, somewhere between science and magic.
The stories that are going to be developed fascinated me after years of experimenting in the darkroom with silver-salts. They motivated me to make research on the properties and significance of this specific element connected to the medium I use.
Silver not only makes the creation of a photographic image possible, it is also an element fully-charged with symbolic meanings. Realising these potentialities, I decided to find places where the metal grows from the earth under the lunar influence and also to re-enact alchemical experiments in the synthetisation of silver from the effect of moonlight.
The 9th edition of .tiff reflects a diversity of voices, positions and subject matter. It is a passionate group of artists and photographers who each try to give personal answers to today’s questions. Youqine Lefèvre (1993, CN) and Joud Toamah (1992, SY) take their personal histories of migration and family archivesas a starting point to explore relationships and the idea of belonging. Lived experience also guides the work of Ugo Woatzi (1991, FR) and his celebration of queer masculinities. Erien Withouck (1994, BE) and Josephina van de Water (1985, NL) use myths and fables to comment on today’s society, whereas Sébastien Cuvelier (1975, BE) creates a visual
fictional paradise. Kamel Moussa (1981, BE) captures the devastating condition of refugees and human resilience. Aurélie Bayad (1994, FR) expresses desires and anxieties in a networked world, whereas Michiel De Cleene (1988, BE) invites viewers to construct their own narrative based on a web of images and information. Lastly, Lucas Leffler (1993, BE) explores the materiality of the photographic medium and its rich history. The ten photographers work in a variety of media, including books, video, performance and installations. Their stories are as diverse as their approach: documentary, analytical, poetic, conceptual, humorous, intimate and most of all fresh and thought-provoking.
Over the years, .tiff has succeeded in building a Belgian photography community that breaches language barriers and allows for an exchange of ideas and insights between artists, curators, critics and researchers. The current selection shows that this community is ever growing and that Belgian photography will continue to reinvent itself for many years to come.