Marin Driguez — Exposition photographique sur l’Institut Jules Bordet
Exhibition from 9 novembre 2022 to 27 novembre 2022
Espace Vanderborght – Rue de l’Ecuyer 50, 1000 Bruxelles
Opening on 8 November 2022 at 6pm
The Jules Bordet Institute is a renowned cancer centre in Belgium that has been treating cancer patients since 1939. For three months, Marin Driguez went there and documented the daily life of the caregivers and patients, who are faced with solitude, waiting, suffering and the end of life. Sometimes described as an austere hospital, it is nonetheless a great humanity that the photographer encountered there, a large family where the bonds are tightened to face and accompany pain and suffering as best as possible.
“All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.” Karen Blixen
This work is part of a documentary project that began four years ago on the public hospitals of Brussels.
« I chose to follow people in hospital for a long time, aiming to build relationships of trust. Despite the will and the unfailing benevolence of exhausted carers, I was struck by the boredom and solitude of hospitalisation: for days, months or even years, bedridden, they wait for the pain to pass, for a spouse or a relative to visit, for the result of an examination, for discharge… Time is long, endless.
With this series, I tried to put a face on those whose lives are punctuated by illness, those who are no longer in the ordinary world, who are no longer effective or profitable.
Without claiming to address cancer as a whole, this work looks at those in the advanced stages of the disease. Many of the patients represented in these images have now passed away, and this exhibition is also a tribute to them.” – Marin Driguez
This work has received a grant from the City of Brussels, and is supported by the King Baudouin Foundation, Agence VU, Visit Brussels and the Brussels Capital Region.
Curation by Hugues de Wurstemberger
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