Maroussia Prignot & Valerio Alvarez

Maroussia Prignot (BE, 1981) and Valerio Alvarez (BE, 1976) have been doing a collective photographic work since 2015. Their collaboration began on the issue of migration, and more specifically the way in which migrants are received within the Belgian state. Considering that any image is a construction, and not a faithful reproduction of the "reality", their approach is integrative, setting up workshops, joint creation actions, trying to collaborate with those who make their photographs.

The photographers focused on one reception centre, creating links and generating encounters by refusing to submit the refugees to further interrogation or to create stereotypical images of misery. The result of these relationships - nurtured over time - is a series of portraits.

This first project - Here, Waiting - is divided into three photographic forms. Firstly, reportage, showing the physical spaces and the realities of the reception centre. Secondly, portrait workshops were organised with the aid of a studio that was assembled during each visit. The subjects were encouraged to manipulate, colour, distort and obscure the printed images. Finally, self-portraits were taken by the children using photocopy machines – the primary bureaucratic tool of their detention.

The photographs are situated within this relationship: there is neither a sovereign author nor centre of action but instead pictures of varying intensity that allow for multiple impressions and interpretations.

https://nosovereignauthor.be/