NOWN: A photography project showing Brussels through the eyes of its people

“After having known war in my country for a long time, I am passionate about looking at a sky without bombardment in Brussels” – Raissa, 55 years old.

 

“Nown” is a contraction of the English terms “now” and “own” which express, respectively, temporality and belonging. “Nown,” it’s your Brussels, here and now. Through simple photos, we can learn much more about the different ways of living in Brussels.

Through this photography project, a dozen local people, refugees and asylum seekers capture the atmosphere of Brussels and their daily lives. The goal is to discover different ways of understanding the city in order to better reunite with it.

It is therefore a project that aims to improve living together by creating a collective dynamic that tends to develop the individual abilities of each person through creative processes.

 

“As a child, it was difficult to travel from my country. My whole family was then contributing to give me a disposable camera and I was their ambassador through my photos. Since then, I have kept this “detective” look in Brussels, I look at every amusing detail, every hidden corner” – Aga, 35 years old.

 

In January 2019, the project started under the initiative of 4 women (Sara, Marine, Philippine and Chloé) with the creation of a photo workshop. The unique task was photographing their daily lives in Brussels.

A group of volunteers was quickly formed with about ten people who wanted to share their daily lives in Brussels. They work with disposable cameras and notebooks to record photo descriptions in their language.

 

“I have always been a very sensitive person. Through my photos, I try to express the different emotions that animate me on a daily basis: joy, pain, anxiety. Nostalgia” – Marine, 25 years old.

 

Around October, the various photographs will be exhibited exclusively at the Recyclart. That’s why, a month ago, they organized  a crowdfunding in order to make this exhibition possible and they have reached the necessary amount.

This project deconstructs each human journey to reconstruct common visions and realities. The goal is to develop important collective objectives of sharing and social cohesion, but also to meet the needs of security, belonging, self-esteem and self-accomplishment by making each participant an actor in the project and a trigger for his or her own creativity.

If you want to discover more about this project, don’t hesitate to visit their Facebook page.

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