NEW EXHIBITION: KURT DE WIT | THE LIVING ARCHIVE

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Paradis Superstore is currently hosting a photography exhibition by renowned Antwerp-based artist Kurt De Wit (°1972). De Wit, who holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, presents a body of work focused on the landscape as a living archive of human history.

The exhibition features complex, layered photographic compositions documenting locations—including ancient quarries and archaeological sites—where evidence of human ambition, from imperialist extraction to military occupation and mass tourism, is visibly interwoven with the environment.  His most recent works introduce an element of chance to counterbalance photography's documentary nature, creating a visual language that explores the tension between presence and absence, and the boundary between nature and construction.

The exhibition is open to the public now at the Paradis Superstore location in Brussels. His photographs can also be purchased at our web store Art works section. 

About the artist and the exhibition:

Kurt De Wit (°1972) lives and works in Antwerp. He studied Photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and obtained his Master’s degree in Visual Arts in 1995.

His images are rich documents in which landscape, culture, history, and human presence are inextricably intertwined: ancient quarries where building materials were once extracted for imperialist purposes, rock formations and archaeological sites where history is revealed layer by layer, like a palimpsest. Or landscapes that, despite their apparent naturalness, reveal a constructed reality shaped to fit a romantic ideal.

For centuries, humans have traversed these landscapes: explorers, scholars, and military forces moved through them with great ambitions, setting up their camps. They were followed by the romantic wanderers of the 19th century, until the landscapes were ultimately flooded by the mass tourism of the 20th century. Time and again, humans leave their marks, continuously reshaping the meaning of these ever-changing environments.

For De Wit, the landscape is not a static, romantic tableau, but a living archive where time and history are interwoven. He purposefully seeks out locations where traces of change and the past converge, capturing them in layered photographic compositions. In his most recent work, he once again plays with what is visible and what remains hidden. While he carefully selects his locations, De Wit now also embraces chance as a counterbalance to the documentary nature of photography. This approach lends his new work an authentic and unpredictable depth. It raises questions about the boundary between nature and construction, chance and intention, forming a new visual language within the tension between presence and absence. In doing so, his images defy a singular interpretation, creating a fragmented yet compelling reality.