Urbanautica

GERT VERBELEN IN THE INNER CIRCLE OF EUROPE

by Peter Waterschoot

«The book ‘The inner Circle of Europe’; a nice and thick 304 pages volume; a voyage to the heart of Europe, made me think about Michel Houellebecq’s ‘la carte et la territoire’.»

In Gert Verbelen’s ‘The inner Circle of Europe’, (already by connoisseurs crowned as a young magnum opus), one encounters a quite new conceptual approach in Belgian documentary photography, ( not as imaginative as let’s say Max Pinckers, but nevertheless fresh and stout).

I myself am rearranging my bookshelves now, in order to get 3 Belgian trans-european photobooks nicely lined up. Namely: Gert Verbelen (‘The inner Circle’), Carl De Keyzer (’Before the Flood’) and Nick Hannes (‘Mediterranean’). Allow me to explain: Carl De Keyser travelled along almost all of the shores of Europe documenting a coastline endangered by global warming and thus portraying a Europe with a questionable future, Nick Hannes photographed the whole Mediterranean region, showing us the frontier between an old Europe and a very unstable middle East. Each of the 2 books approach major ‘geopolitical’ problems which Europe ought to be facing.

Gert Verbelen does the same, but in an opposite direction; he literally travels -to the heart - of every of all 18 countries of the European community. On doing this, Gert Verbelen unfolds a third problem; not as much the problem from without, but the problem from within. Gert Verbelen puts his eye at work in little villages at the heart of each of the countries. Gert Verbelen is also a graphic designer, so there’s no wonder the cover of the book already strikes you. On the cover and at the beginning of each chapter you find beautiful drawings, the outlines of all 18 countries connected by droplines, thus defining the very center-point of each of the countries. Needless to say, no majestic ‘grand place’ or monumental museums to be found there. More likely; cosy boondocks, typical dreary holes, charming dying villages. Rural exodus towards the cities, ageing population, and the ever growing lack of creative resilience in creating employment, even poverty sometimes, as well as intellectual and educational ‘disconnection’.

The book ‘The inner Circle of Europe’; a nice and thick 304 pages volume; a voyage to the heart of Europe, made me think about Michel Houellebecq’s ‘la carte et la territoire’. Not only because of the main map-art theme in the MH book ( it is about an artist who decides to become a successful conceptual artist by photographing details of Michelin-maps), but also because of the fact that Houellebecq tackles rural exodus in the book, and as it is a sci-fi novel, he takes the liberty to suggest the possibility of a future rehabilitation of rural villages with a returning local industry; in tourism, gastronomy, farming and employment in arts-and crafts, combined with an everpresent IT-economy which ties everything together. I think this idea is not so unlikely. With the by now ‘succeeded’ gentrification in European cities, prices of houses have astronomically risen. It might be utopian but still not so unlogical that certain numbers of the cities’ ‘bourgeois bohemians’ might go and re-populate these (not so) ‘far –off’ regions and realize startups there.

Michel Houellebecq also guides me towards the second part of this review. In the second part of ‘la carte et la territoire’ Jed, the artist-protagonist, takes up an August Sander-like project (although painted), depicting people in various contemporary professions. Gert Verbelen made me think about Sander as well, in the sense that- just like Sander did in 1929, Verbelen wants to show us the ‘face of our time’ in a very neutral Sander-like registration ( but translated in a modern color photography); in portraits, landscapes and objects. In each of the chapters lives a sense of urgency and incompleteness, what you see is what you get, there is nothing too much romanticized. How come? The photographer has stayed in each of the places for one week and has succeeded in entering people’s lives, working towards a ‘fly on the wall’ outlook. He is a visitor, not a tourist. Which gives him a mandate to make well deliberated, calm pictures ‘from within’. ( makes me think of Depoorter, Bieke).He also has an eye for detail, texture and color which have an iconic function in the booksetting. You can do the test and TiCoE becomes a playbook; open a random page, try to guess which of the countries you have entered. More about the deliberate ‘incompleteness’; well, it is important, because the storytelling needs an open ending, an open view, a logical inventory avoiding cliché, unbiased, non-nostalgic. The viewer can make up his/her own mind upon the state of Europe’s heart; will it die of sclerosis, or will it rejoice at rejuvenating fresh blood? This book is most certainly an opener for any decent debate on the manufacturability of a European future, on the necessity of European transition, and the many challenges that aren’t faced.