Exhibition ‘We are Europe’ – Lieve Blancquaert

Lieve Blancquaert is a Belgian photographer, journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is socially very involved in the fight against injustice, especially against women.

She has written or collaborated on twenty books. Her work has been shown at many exhibitions, mainly in Belgium. Lieve Blancquaert has also made beautiful documentaries for television. It is impressive to read on her bio how productive and successful she is. Here is the link to the website of Lieve Blancquaert: https://www.lieveblancquaert.be

We are a big fan of hers. That began when watching her documentaries on Flemish and Dutch television. We have bought several photo books of her.

In April we made a short campertrip to Belgium and on our program was to also visit the exhibition “We are Europe” in Cultuurcentrum Mechelen by Lieve Blancquart. The photographs in the exhibition were taken during an epic journey across Europe, visiting 27 member states, in search of the roots of our identity. The photos and documentary give an honest picture of the challenges we face in Europe, but also show the similarities.

When I visited the exhibition, Lieve herself was present. As it turned out, recordings were made for the VRT news. I spoke to her very briefly and, of course, complimented her on her work. But I was too surprised and maybe too shy to ask a lot of questions. It was special to meet her.

I was allowed to take some pictures of her and to my great surprise I saw myself in the VRT news the next day while taking those pictures (tipped off by a friend of ours). Here is a link to the news item on VRT (click)