Urgent Conversations: Athens – Antwerp

Although known primarily for his paintings, Luc Tuymans has also experimented with video and photography. Prague, Refribell, Harbours, Waterloo and Nautilus are a series of eighteen print editions made from three films shot by Tuymans in 1981 and 1982 using a Super-8 camera. Prague comprises four stills of a water-damaged woman’s portrait found by Tuymans on a tombstone in a Prague graveyard. Refribell depicts some buildings in the port of Antwerp that have since been torn down, specifically, the immense depot with cold storage rooms of Belgian refrigeration company Refribell. Harbours depict the bow of a ship and a full moon referring to a sense of collective memory of ports. Waterloo has faint images of older men. Whilst Nautilius shows photographs from the kitchen interior of the eponymous harbour restaurant. The pictures and titles of these various photo series function like allegories for our memories: some parts of the photo are sharp and luminous, whilst others are dim and faint.