Espace Photographique Contretype

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The Espace Photographique Contretype is a museum for contemporary photography in Brussels . The museum is located in the listed Art Nouveau building, Hôtel Hannon .

Hôtel Hannon - history of construction and use

Hotel Hannon
Mosaic with floral elements

The Hôtel Hannon was built in 1903–1904 by the Belgian architect Jules Brunfaut for the client Edouard Hannon (1853–1931). (Hôtel is a short form of Hôtel particulier for a large town house, so it has nothing to do with a hotel .) The owner Edouard Hannon was a senior engineer in the Solvay group and also an amateur photographer. Hannon was friends with Brunfaut and an admirer of French Art Nouveau . In particular, the design was based on the building by Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta , which is particularly evident in the impressive staircase, a typical Horta design element. The Hôtel Hannon was to remain the only Art Nouveau building by Brunfaut that otherwise worked in the neoclassical style.

The facade is designed with clinker bricks into which strips of ashlar are inserted. The sculptural reliefs were made by the Belgian sculptor Victor Rousseau (1865–1954). The stained glass windows of the Hôtel Hannon are from Tiffany's , the furniture was designed by Émile Gallé . The large mural in the stairwell was designed by the French painter Paul Albert Baudouin (1844–1931). The interior design shows great unity and care in the selection of wrought iron elements, furniture, floor design with mosaics, murals and windows.

The Hannon family lived in the building until 1965. After that the building was empty. In 1976 the Hôtel Hannon was listed as a historical monument . In 1979 the municipality of Saint-Gilles bought the Hôtel Hannon and had it restored from 1982 to 1988.

Espace Photographique Contretype

The museum was founded in 1978 by Jean-Louis Godefroid. Since 1988 it has been located in the Hôtel Hannon in the Saint-Gilles district of Brussels , on the corner of Avenue Brugman and Avenue de la Jonction. To the west of the building is St. Giles Prison.

There are four to six temporary exhibitions per year. Group exhibitions and works by internationally not yet established artists predominate. Often there is a local connection to Brussels. In 2004 Edouard Hannon's photographic collection was shown. The Contretype is financed by membership fees as well as local public funding and private donations.

Web links

Commons : Hotel Hannon  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Piet Swimberghe: Living in Brussels . Lannoo Uitgeverij, pp. 126-128. ISBN 9020949799 .
  2. ^ Les monumentsproteges dans la region de Bruxelles-Capitale ( Memento of April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) as of February 15, 2009.

Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′ 15.1 ″  N , 4 ° 21 ′ 8 ″  E