Takeover: #154 Bebe Blanco Agterberg
Bebe Blanco Agterberg: Instagram / Website
#154 (15/03 - 19/03, 2021) written by Anisa Demirci and Cheyenne Pattiwaël
Let’s take a seat! This week KABK Photography-Documentary graduate Bebe Blanco Agterberg will visually tell her stories full of politics, media, citizens, censorship and power struggles!
“I have always been fascinated by the power of the story. Sometimes I find stories more powerful than facts. Art gives me the freedom to reach another target group and bring it into the public space, to stay in conversation with each other and bring up stories. I look purely at stories and how I can bring them out in the most impactful way.”
Bebe is fascinated by alienating and political current events in our society. She poses questions like: “how do media and politics work together?” Events from the past that still hold a lot of power in the present are a good place to start...
“My process usually starts with months of extensive research. Later on I go to the places I have investigated and look to what extent the event is still alive, if it lives through people or monuments? How does the conversation manifest itself? It is often a mismatch. Things are missing. I then stage what is not visible.”
‘Speculative documentary’ is what we are left with. Her visual research and straightforward documentation of what is still visible of the story are merged. Bebe is always looking for the truth, she questions what is presented as such. She plays within a very gray area, in which content and impact are equally important.
“I shoot in black and white, to refer to older photography from archives and the classic documentary style of the 70’s. It has something reliable. Because it is black and white, I can more easily blur the boundary between past and present. The past often has a lot of impact on the present. It’s cliché, but it’s true.”
This week Bebe will show us a variety of her works, who she is as a maker and take us with her in her process.
“I hope to confuse the viewer, make them wonder whether it is real or not. That they recognize certain symbolism, but also have many questions. That they bring that questioning attitude to what they see next.”
“I have always been fascinated by the power of the story. Sometimes I find stories more powerful than facts. Art gives me the freedom to reach another target group and bring it into the public space, to stay in conversation with each other and bring up stories. I look purely at stories and how I can bring them out in the most impactful way.”
Bebe is fascinated by alienating and political current events in our society. She poses questions like: “how do media and politics work together?” Events from the past that still hold a lot of power in the present are a good place to start...
“My process usually starts with months of extensive research. Later on I go to the places I have investigated and look to what extent the event is still alive, if it lives through people or monuments? How does the conversation manifest itself? It is often a mismatch. Things are missing. I then stage what is not visible.”
‘Speculative documentary’ is what we are left with. Her visual research and straightforward documentation of what is still visible of the story are merged. Bebe is always looking for the truth, she questions what is presented as such. She plays within a very gray area, in which content and impact are equally important.
“I shoot in black and white, to refer to older photography from archives and the classic documentary style of the 70’s. It has something reliable. Because it is black and white, I can more easily blur the boundary between past and present. The past often has a lot of impact on the present. It’s cliché, but it’s true.”
This week Bebe will show us a variety of her works, who she is as a maker and take us with her in her process.
“I hope to confuse the viewer, make them wonder whether it is real or not. That they recognize certain symbolism, but also have many questions. That they bring that questioning attitude to what they see next.”