Horizons

La Fileuse, a cultural venue in Loos, is hosting the Hauts-de-France Institut pour la photographie for its first series of exhibitions dedicated to photography, featuring projects by Cédric Gerbehaye, Harry Gruyaert, and Jean-Louis Schoellkopf.

Horizons explores our relationship to the land by presenting three distinct projects created by leading figures in contemporary documentary photography.

Odysseys and Horizons - Cédric Gerbehaye

In the exhibition hall, Cédric Gerbehaye focuses on black-and-white photography and an inclusive approach to document the experiences of young exiles who have been taken in and are attending the Maurice Duhamel Vocational High School in Loos.

“They could be those shadows, shoulders slumped, at the mercy of poverty and indifference, who squat on the edges of the ring roads, bridges, and parks of our cities in utter destitution. They could be those shadows—crushed, reduced to mere numbers, scorned by our leaders, our government agencies, and our police—who treat them as if they were a threat, in defiance of the 1951 Geneva Convention, a promise of international solidarity in the aftermath of World War II.  

For they all bear the same label stamped on their foreheads: “migrant”—to which we must add a specific distinction: they are “unaccompanied minors” (UMs). Coming from distant lands—Afghanistan, sub-Saharan Africa, or the Middle East—they have left their childhoods behind and walked until they were exhausted in the hope of a better life.  

They have endured the ordeal of surviving the Sahara, the hell of Libya, shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea, criminal smugglers, sexual violence, and hunger... They watched their fellow sufferers die, swept away by the waters.  

They made it.  
They have a new life in Loos at the Maurice Duhamel Vocational High School. Here, in the Hauts-de-France region, alongside local children, they are training for careers in the construction industry, and for the first time, they can put down roots and plan for the future thanks to the prospect of a brighter future.” 

Cédric Gerbehaye 

↘︎ Credits: The Series Odysseys and Horizons was conducted in 2019 as part of the project Facts and Figures , launched by the Institut pour la photographie and the MAPS agency

NORTH - Harry Gruyaert

For the past fifty years or so, Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert, a member of Magnum Photos, has been traveling the world to capture its diverse atmospheres. In the tradition of American color photography, his work transcends the banality of everyday life by exploring the existential and descriptive qualities of color.

The screening of NORTH by Harry Gruyaert, in the auditorium, offers an immersive experience combining photography and music. The rich palette of colors and the light that emanates from the works offer a fresh perspective on the landscapes of the Hauts-de-France region. Complementing these exhibitions, meet-and-greet sessions and workshops open to everyone provide opportunities to share perspectives and experiences inspired by the images.

Colors and variations in light inspire the shots, in a highly graphic style influenced by painting. And the perfectly balanced compositions of these candid photographs seem to freeze time and evoke the world of cinema.

His affinity for cinema has recently become evident in his film series A Sense of Place (Le Sens du lieu). In the tradition of the slide show (a projection of slides accompanied by a soundtrack), these short videos string together photographs of the same region, set to original music by Tuur Florizoone. This project also provides Harry Gruyaert with an opportunity to revisit his selection of images and, using digital tools, rework the color palette of the images originally shot on Kodachrome film.

NORTH , a new production for the Institut pour la photographie, presents a sequence of more than 160 photographs of the Hauts-de-France region—rural, urban, industrial, and coastal landscapes—taken from the 1980s to the present, for commissioned or personal projects. The images unfold in sequence based on their chromatic and formal composition, set to music composed to resonate with the rhythm of the slideshow and the atmosphere of the images. An immersive photographic experience that invites us to "look".

↘︎ Duration: 15 minutes

↘︎ Management: Valéry Faidherbe and Harry Gruyaert

↘︎ Original Music: Tuur Florizoone

↘︎ Chromie: Albin Millot

Portugal - Jean-Louis Schoellkopf

Jean-Louis Schoellkopf, who has entrusted his photographic archives to the Institut pour la photographie, is presenting a selection of previously unpublished photographs of Portugal’s Douro Valley on the plaza. These photographs, in particular, raise questions about the development of this region, whether in terms of the exploitation of its natural resources or the integration of human settlements into the environment.

French photographer Jean-Louis Schoellkopf, who has been active since the 1960s, has deposited his photographic archives with the Institut pour la photographie for preservation and dissemination. 

This installation features a series of six previously unpublished photographs taken in 1990 in Portugal as part of a photographic commission documenting the architectural works designed by Álvaro Siza. 

An internationally renowned Portuguese architect, Siza is a leading figure in “critical regionalism.” In response to modern architecture that is disconnected from its surroundings, he advocates for incorporating traditional local culture and craftsmanship into architectural design. 

Jean-Louis Schoellkopf’s photographs reveal this same focus on the issue of land use planning, highlighting the traces of human activity in the landscape. The linear patterns reflect a rational approach to the exploitation of natural resources, while adapting to the contours of the valleys. 

Above all, the selection illustrates Siza’s criticisms of our conception of housing in relation to the environment: traditional houses or villages seem to blend into the landscape and embody the pursuit of a form of harmony with nature. In contrast, modern housing developments, lined up in rows in a desert setting, reveal more clearly the focus on real estate optimization at the expense of attention to the quality of the living environment.

↘︎ Credits: Horizons is a production of the Hauts-de-France Institut pour la photographie, in collaboration with the City of Loos