This project started with one LED-display at Ladeuzeplein in Leuven. I have to pass this display every evening and I think it is so absurd that it is able to lid ¼th of the square.
This particular commercial display is only one of the many light installations in Belgium, which partially makes that our country is one of the most lid countries in the world. One of the consequences of this is that it doesn’t get dark enough and messes up the Belgian eco-systems.
This absurd and ecological part was a good starting point, but I found these light-installations in a weird way also very esthetical. That is why I was thinking what photography can do to show this esthetical and absurdness at the same time.
The installations in these pictures have one thing in common: they use light to show their message. What happens in my pictures is the opposite – the light (of the installation) that is supposed to give information destroys it instead. In other words: it destroys the purpose of the installation.
Bastiaan van Aarle is a 26-year old Belgian photographer, who is inspired by both nature and our society. Starting from strolling through the woods with his camera when he was a kid, his interest slowly shifted more towards how our society has an influence on these landscapes. What do we do to it and how do we want to control it. Do we have total control or does nature fights back? The photographs resulting out of this, shows the struggle between the two: the fight to survive or the power to submit.
