%0 Journal Article
%T Belgian Photography: Towards a Minor Photography.
%A Jan Baetens
%A Hilde Van Gelder
%A Mieke Bleyen
%J Image and Narrative : Online Magazine of the Visual Narrative
%D 2011
%I Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
%X : This article investigates Belgian photography from within the national framework. Using the notion of "banal nationalism" (Billig), it explores how even in the case of a nation widely perceived as non-existing , a nation in which the ¡°official¡± national culture has completely eroded, the relationship between  photography and national culture are worth wile addressing. Furthermore, this text shows that Belgian photography, repeatedly described as having no schools, no centre, no towering figures, nor strong institutions, in short as lacking any positive identity, can not be approached in any essentializing way. In order to study the photographic production made in Belgium, new questions are needed, questions reaching beyond the traditional aesthetic questions of styles, masters, evolutions; questions that address the medium in its multiplicity and its context sensitiveness. This article tries to develop such a new set of questions by proposing a transfer of the notion of ¡°minor literature¡± as it was theorized by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to the study of the photographic medium.   R¨¦sum¨¦: Le pr¨¦sent article examine la photographie belge du point de vue des liens entre culture et nation. En partant du concept de "nationalisme banal" (Billig), il s'interroge sur la mani¨¨re dont un pays qui est globalement per u comme "inexistent" et priv¨¦ de toute culture "'nationale", le rapport entre photographie et culture nationale m¨¦rite d'¨ºtre analys¨¦. Rappelant le fait que la photographie belge est g¨¦n¨¦ralement d¨¦crite en termes n¨¦gatifs (un art sans tendances majeures, priv¨¦ de centre, sans grands artistes, sans institutions et surtout sans aucune identif¨¦), l'article souligne l'impossibilit¨¦ de d¨¦crire cet art en termes d'essence(s). Pour aborder la photographie faite en Belgique, de nouvelles questions doivent ¨ºtre pos¨¦es qui d¨¦passent les probl¨¨mes traditionnels de styles, mod¨¨les, chronologie, etc., et qui permettent de rendre compte de la diversit¨¦ et de l'ancrage contextuel du m¨¦dia. Cet article propose quelques pistes en ce sens en transposant au domaine  de la photographie le concept de litt¨¦rature mineure (Deleuze ¨¦ Guattari).
%K nation ¨C culture ¨C Belgium ¨C Deleuze & Guattari - minor photography
%U http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.php/imagenarrative/article/view/162