Forest Centre Culturel presents for the first time in Belgium, from August 27th to November 26 2010, On Reality and Other Stories , a retrospective of the South-African photographer Pieter Hugo. An opportunity to discover this engaged artist who offers us the portrait of an unknown African continent, sometimes radical but always surprising.
Born in 1976 in Johannesburg, Pieter Hugo is part of the young post-apartheid generation of South Africa. Winner of many prestigious awards, he becomes famous in 2007 with his book on hyena-men and receives in 2008 the Discovery Award of the Rencontres d’Arles, international photography festival. From the FOAM Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam, the London Modern Tate to the Australian Center for Photography in Sydney, his works are exhibited in the whole world. Guest of Honour at the Rencontres de Bamako in 2009, the African biennial of photography, where he presented his most recent series, Nollywood, on the Nigerian film industry.
This retrospective in Brussels gathers the most important and telling series of Hugo’s work, among which Albinism, Hyena Men and Nollywood.
His out-standing topics deal with Africa: South-Africans suffering from albinism, a genetic feature which unsettles the notions of race; Botswana judges in gowns and hats, disturbing references to colonialism; Ghanaian honey pickers as well as hyena, monkey and snake tamers, nomads who work in the slums of the sprawling cities… Also, the young Afrikaner farmers, the Liberian boy-scouts, bearers of a peace message, in a violent and troubled country, and the incredible actors of Nollywood, the Nigerian popular film industry of distinctly African small budget movies that now ranks third in the world, in output after Hollywood and Bollywood.
Through these varied series, Pieter Hugo shows the complexities and paradoxes of Africa, an ethnically diverse continent where traditions and beliefs blend with occidental influences inherited from colonialism.

Pieter Hugo: On Reality and Other Stories August 29th – November 26th 2010
Forest, centre culturel – at the BRASS, Brussels


Sam, Klein Karoo, South Africa, 2003
© Pieter Hugo. Courtesy Michael Stevenson, Cape Town & Yossi Milo, New York