Arié, Rue des Grands Carmes

Arié Mandelbaum, a Belgian painter born in 1939 of Polish Jewish parents, must leave his studio and his place of residence. The building will soon be destroyed by the city and the move is in progress. This huge place - a former sponge factory - is located about twenty meters from the Manneken Pis, a major tourist attraction in Brussels. As soon as we enter the doors, we are instantly cut off from everything: the bustling and noisy city center, Brussels, but also time. I was greatly struck by this singular space-time. I wanted to do a photographic work on Arié and his artistic practice in his studio. As I visited him, I realized that Arié was not painting. Arié no longer paints. His studio is his place of life. He wanders from room to room, listens to cultural shows on the radio, reads a book or the outline of a friend's next work, has coffee, smokes and often receives friends. Two elements of his daily life and his place struck me: - WAITING: Arié is waiting, but for what? His move to Fontenoille, time passing, waiting for the end of life, a new life. - GRIEF: Grief for a past (The Holocaust and the anti-Semitism that marked him, the death of his sons Stéphane and Alexandre), grief for a place that is leaving, grief for a place that will be destroyed, his soul with it. Based on these two elements, I decided to immortalize Arié through this photographic series. "Arié, Rue des Grands Carmes" aimes to immortalize Arié, his studio and place of life that wull be destoyed.