Festival Art Souterrain

Barbara Iweins is an avid collector who has classified, collected, and archived her photographic subjects from a young age according to strict criteria. Through various creative projects involving people who are unknown to her, the artist explores the boundaries of intimacy. In 2016, after a challenging eleventh move, she turned her camera on her own private life. She confined herself and embarked on an ambitious project: photographing the 12,795 objects in her home one by one. This task took her four years to complete. Following a strict protocol, she indexed her objects by colour, material, and frequency of use, transforming her home into a meticulous visual catalogue. This project, called Katalog, is reminiscent of the inventories created by Christian Boltanski between 1973 and 1974. However, Iweins’s monumental version stands out for its exhaustiveness and the artist’s self-deprecating humour.

The objects, presented in large quantities and grouped by the various rooms in the house, form a tapestry that extends down to the floor. Behind its humorous facade and the element of surprise it evokes, the proposal encourages a profound reflection on our relationship with objects and consumption, offering an intimate yet universal portrait of contemporary society.

Iweins, a Belgian artist, holds a degree in Communication and Journalism from the Institut des Hautes Études des Communications Sociales (IHECS). She initially worked in film distribution and production before turning to photography in 2009 while living in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Since returning to Brussels (Belgium) in 2016, she has developed her photographic work through several international group exhibitions, particularly in Europe and Asia. Between 2010 and 2023, she held solo exhibitions at the Street Lab in Amsterdam, the Atelier Relief in Brussels, the Parlement Francophone Bruxellois, the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles (France), and the Appartement d’Images in Vevey (Switzerland). Her project, Katalog, was published by Delpire&co in 2022, and the following year, the book was nominated for the prestigious Prix du Livre de Arles and the Prix Bob Calle du livre d’artiste in France.

The Festival Art Souterrain presents the artist’s first exhibition in North America.

Protocol followed by the artist in realizing the project
She excluded:

• as a tenant, the fixed items in the house that she did not choose, such as the bathtub, the sink, etc.;
• Food, which is ephemeral;
• Items with no distinct volume, such as papers, letters, etc.

Items with no distinct volume, such as papers, letters, etc.

• any item that is packaged or attached to another;
• items in over fifty identical copies (glitter, straws, etc.);
• items that are part of a set and still in their original packaging (board games, a box of cotton swabs, etc.); however, if the item is no longer in its original box, it is considered unique and photographed separately (Lego brick, marble, etc.).