A shrine to the digital age

It’s Europe’s largest photography museum and an international reference in the digital domain. This year, Charleroi Photo Museum is celebrating its 25th birthday with themed visits, workshops and activities for all ages and, of course, exhibitions on a scale that has established its impressive educational and artistic reputation.

The former Carmelite monastery in Mont-sur-Marchienne is a deceptively spacious building thanks to the addition in 2008 of a contemporary wing. Integrated on to the facade of the red-brick convent, its ondulating aluminium panels create a starkly contrasted ensemble. The play on shape, light and colour are perfect partners for the combined 2,500 square metres of interior space that enables three shows to run simultaneously with a rhythm of nine exhibitions a year.

Equally incongruousis the museum’s location in the heart of a village in the urban sprawl of this Hainaut city. With just a small part of the cloister visible from the street, the shrine to digital imagery is full of surprises: from the soaring ceilings of the convent, to the snapshots of suburban streets and local school through the windows of the modern building, and finally the contemporary green and glass spaces set within the sanctuary walls.

www.museephoto.be 

This article was first published in WAB Magazine