On the occasion of our exhibition A partir d’elle artist Barbara Debeuckelaere presents her book ’Om (Mother), a collaborative project created with the women of eight families from Tel Rumeida in Hebron, Palestine. The project explores themes of resilience, motherhood, and life under occupation, highlighting the strength and stories of these women. During the conversation, Debeuckelaere will discuss how the project took shape, her experience of life in Hebron, the collaboration with the Palestinian women, the role of photography, and how the project keeps evolving. The conversation will be hosted (in English) by Tom Viaene, lecturer, editor, and author.

Exhibition open from 5:30 PM

Lecture: 6:30-8pm

In English

Barbara Debeuckelaere (BE) is a photographer, visual artist and teacher at School of Arts KASK in Ghent. She was previously a development worker in Suriname and a radio and TV journalist for the Belgian broadcaster VRT. In 2015, she left journalism to study visual arts and work on her own projects, mainly through photography and film. She has Master’s degrees in Economics, in International Politics and European Law, and most recent in Visual Art, Photography. Her work revolves around normalization, capitalism and power and lies at the intersection of documentary and fiction, of still and moving image, of seriousness and play. It depicts real spaces with an unexpected role for ideas, emotions and unconscious drives. Debeuckelaere has the ambition to visualize the invisible, critical of the creeping normalization in the neoliberal realm of things. Her series have been published in newspapers (De Standaard, Volkskrant) and exhibited (FOMU, Brakke Grond, Rivoli Brussels). Her last book ‘Om/Mother (2024) is now in second print and was shortlisted for the Aperture/Paris Photo Book Award and at Rencontres d’Arles. Debeuckelaere is based in Ghent, Belgium.

Tom Viaene is a lecturer, editor, and author. He teaches philosophy and aesthetics and is a research policy advisor at Sint Lucas Antwerp - School of Arts KdG. He is also a member of the editorial team of Grounds, the research journal of Sint Lucas Antwerp. For the Fotomuseum Antwerp (FOMU), he is the coordinator of Trigger, a publication for reflection on photography. Viaene’s work focuses on decolonial critical theories and explores Eurocentrism and its impact on visual culture, aesthetics, and the politics of representation. His research examines how film, photography, and philosophy can challenge dominant narratives about identity, power, and colonial legacies, with an emphasis on the importance of non-Eurocentric perspectives in understanding global cultural production.