From 13 September till 3 November, Breda will host the 11th edition of the biennial BredaPhoto Festival, the largest photographic exhibition in the Benelux. Side by side with young talents, top photographers will show their views on festival theme Journeys in industrial buildings, churches, residential houses, parks and the rugged development area ’t Zoet.
Dutch Design Daily highlights a number of Dutch participants during the festival period. Today: Anaïs López.
Photographer Anaïs López (b. 1981) is first and foremost a storyteller. She creates long-term multimedia projects that are at the intersection of fiction and documentary. She is considered a pioneer in her field. Her work has been exhibited worldwide in museums and festivals and won several prizes. BredaPhoto presents her project ‘Bloedband’ (Blood Ties) in Carré Chassé.
In 1946, the photographer’s grandmother left her two small children, never to return. Seeking to get a grip on her past, the artist obsessively researches her family history. But the deeper she digs, the more grip she loses. How important is it to know your family history?
This film started with a question: “Can I go search for your mother?” Not knowing that pulling on that one thread from the past would unravel her family history forever. Anaïs searched genealogical databases, scoured the internet, administered DNA tests, lost family members and found new uncles and aunts on the other side of the world. Everyone in the family told their own version of history.
Grandma Willy appears to have built a new life in Brazil. Did she ever think about her eldest daughter? When Anaïs comes across a box of photos of her grandmother, she thinks she is finally getting closer to the truth. But staring at those snapshots of her grandmother’s life, she discovers that photos are not irrefutable evidence, but the building blocks of a story, of which everyone makes their own version.
