Emmanuel Van der Auwera’s works challenge the self-evident nature of found documentary images that aim to produce facts and truth. His photographs, films and video installations use polarising visual material circulating in digital spaces, addressing the ethical responsibility in dealing with images of violence and collective trauma. In regard to the recent school mass shootings in the USA, the works on display are frighteningly topical. They can be read as a plea for a critical approach to mediatised depictions of violence. At the same time, they provide a fascinating insight into the merciless kaleidoscope of the digital image flux by questioning our visual literacy: How do images of contemporary mass media operate on various publics and to what end? Where is the borderline to voyeurism? Which images do we trust and why do they go viral?

Emmanuel Van der Auwera (*1982, BE) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, such as Centre Pompidou (Paris), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich, Germany) or Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria). Recent solo shows comprise presentations at HEK (Basel, Switzerland) 2022 and at Botanique (Brussels, Belgium) 2019 . In 2015, he received the Langui Prize for Young Belgian Art.