Hangar presents exhibitions by Charlotte Abramow, Nick Brandt and Maryam Firuzi this fall
Save the Date: press conference in the presence of the artists: Wednesday 17 September, 2PM
Following AImagine, Hangar launches the 2025 season with three exhibitions that echo major contemporary concerns: MAURICE, Tristesse et Rigolade by Belgian artist Charlotte Abramow addresses end-of-life and the resilience that can accompany it; The Day May Break by British photographer Nick Brandt confronts us with human and animal migrations caused by climate upheaval; and Iranian artist Maryam Firuzi takes us to the far reaches of her country and its women’s communities.
Charlotte Abramow
MAURICE, Tristesse et Rigolade
Opening on Thursday 18 September 2025 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Exhibition from 19 September to 21 December, 2025
Press conference in the presence of the artist: Wednesday 17 September, 2pm
MAURICE, Tristesse et Rigolade is a moving testimony and a daughter’s farewell to her father. Seven years after the book’s release, MAURICE, Tristesse et Rigolade is finally being exhibited for the first time at Hangar.
With her characteristic delicacy, Charlotte Abramow immerses us in the world of illness through her unique writing style, blending the seriousness of documentary with the surrealist irony that defines an already rich body of work.
About Charlotte Abramow
Charlotte Abramow was born in 1993 in Brussels, Belgium. She currently lives and works in Paris, France. From a very young age, the artist showed an interest in imagery. At the age of 16, during an internship at the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France, she met the Italian fashion photographer Paolo Roversi. Roversi wrote several articles about Charlotte Abramow's work and showcased it for the first time.
In her twenties, Charlotte Abramow decided to move to Paris to study at Gobelins, l'École de l'Image, where she graduated two years later. As a photographer and filmmaker, Charlotte Abramow has received numerous awards. In 2014, she won the Prix Picto for young fashion photography.
Additionally, the artist received two distinctions at the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles in 2015 (finalist of the Photo Review Awards) and 2017 (special mention for her project "Maurice"). In 2019, Charlotte Abramow won the Silver Prize at the Young Director Award for the music video "Balance ton Quoi" by Angèle.
Charlotte Abramow presents a quite unique photographic work on several levels. As an engaged artist, she is particularly interested in bodies: how to represent them, the hypersexualization often associated with them, their taboos, their imperfections... More broadly, the artist emphasizes how society determines and contributes to the reproduction of dominant norms.
Nick Brandt
The Day May Break
Opening on Thursday 18 September, 2025 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Exhibition from 19 September to 21 December, 2025
Press conference in the presence of the artist: Wednesday 17 September, 2pm
Images may only be used to promote the exhibition and may not be cropped, retouched or altered in any way. Any use of the images must be accompanied by their full caption.
The Day May Break, the latest series by Nick Brandt, is being shown for the first time in Belgium—and for the first time in its entirety. Comprising four chapters, each will be represented by a selection of images. From Africa to South America, this series portrays animal species and human communities affected by climate change. Nick Brandt calls on us to respond to what he describes as “ecocide.”
The Day May Break is the first part of a global series portraying both people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction. The series was shot in different locations around the world – countries that are the least polluting but the most climate vulnerable. The first two chapters were photographed in Kenya, Zimbabwe (2020) and Bolivia (2022), while SINK and RISE, dedicated exclusively to humans, was shot in Fiji. Photographed underwater, the local people in these photographs are representatives of the many people whose homes, land and livelihoods will be lost in the coming decades as the sea level rises.
About Nick Brandt
Nick Brandt (1964) was born and raised in London, where he originally studied painting and film at Saint Martin’s School of Art. While directing Michael Jackson's epic Earth Song video in Tanzania in 1995, Nick fell in love with animals and the East African land.
A few years later he began his first photographic series, On This Earth (2000–05), which comprises a trilogy together with the later series, A Shadow Falls (2009) and Across the Ravaged Land (2013). On This Earth was published in a book form in 2005 with introductions by the conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall, author Alice Sebold, and photography critic Vicki Goldberg. Later series, Inherit the Dust (2016) and This Empty World (2019), were all also photographed in East Africa.
In 2010, Brandt co-founded Big Life Foundation, a non-profit in Kenya/Tanzania that employs more than 350 local rangers protecting 1.6 million acres of the Amboseli/Kilimanjaro ecosystem. His photographs focus on the impact of environmental destruction and climate breakdown, for both some of the most vulnerable people and for the animal and natural world.
Since 2020, he has been working on The Day May Break, an ongoing global series that portrays people and animals impacted by climate change and environmental destruction.
HANGAR GALLERY
Maryam Firuzi
When the Earth Still Had a Feminine Name
Opening on Thursday 18 September 2025 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Exhibition from 19 September to 2 November 2025
Press conference in the presence of the artist: Wednesday 17 September, 2pm
Iranian artist Maryam Firuzi explores themes of memory and identity, highlighting Iranian women. Through carefully composed images, she engages with the notions of presence and absence. Her work is an ode to the resilience and transmission across generations. This exhibition marks the first presentation of her work in Belgium.
About Maryam Firuzi
Maryam Firuzi was born in 1986 in Shiraz. She is a graduate of the Art University of Tehran in scriptwriting (BA), and in film studies (MA).
She lives in Tehran and works in photography and cinema. She has written and directed several short films screened domestically and internationally, including at the Solaris Film Festival, Nice, the International Festival Signos la Noite, Lisbon, and Short on Tap Festival, London. She was awarded for best short film at the Mediterranean Film Festival at Cannes.
Her work has been exhibited in several solo and group photography shows and festivals, including the Festival du Film Franco Arabe in France, Paris Photo 2021 and 2022, as well as shows in Beirut, Amman, Paris, Singapore, and Marseilles. In Austria, she received the Alfred Fried Peace Photography Award medal in 2018 and she was laureate of IWPA award 6th edition (2022). her photos has been represented in “Vision of the east” the 19th edition of La Gacilly photo festival, France.
About Hangar
Hangar offers the experience of discovering contemporary photography, with carefully curated exhibitions, a specialised bookshop, a program of events, and a commercial gallery.
Hangar’s mission is to promote and support the work of emerging and established Belgian photographers, European and international artists. The photo art center offers a living and experimental place for both artists and the visitors.
Located in a semi-industrial building in the center of a charming, shaded square, Place du Châtelain, Hangar is a non-discriminative art center committed to be in touch with the flow of the cultural world. The thematic diversity presented prompts the audience to engage with a wide array of world issues.
As a photo art center since 2016, Hangar has set itself the mission of opening up to all forms and sensitivities of contemporary photography. There is no restriction on genres, territories, nor the modus operandi of the medium. What matters is the artist, what he/she has to say about his/her time through the lens, and the way in which he/she explores the medium of photography.
Throughout the years, Hangar has been a platform for both internationally recognized and emerging photographers, aiming to spotlight the full spectrum and creative vitality of contemporary photography.
Supporting contemporary creation also implies assisting artists in the commercialisation of their works. Art collectors also require guidance in purchasing photographic prints within the specific and precise rules of contemporary art. Therefore, in response to the mutual demand from artists and collectors, Hangar established the Hangar gallery activity.
This is the uniqueness of Hangar: both a venue for museum-like exhibitions in Brussels and a dynamic gallery activity that supports sustainable artistic creation.
Hangar
18 Place du Châtelain,
1050 Brussels
HANGAR
Press contact
Club Paradis
Micha Pycke
+32 (0)486 680 070
micha@clubparadis.be