A piece of paper, a « Bic » and a pencil. That’s all Dominique Vangilbergen needs to bring his « Paradise People » alive.
At first sight, Vangilbergen’s works look like « stills ». But when you give them a closer look, you can see how much life there is in the drawing. As a viewer you fall for the esthetics of his pen-blue work but than you realise that it has so much more to say. The symbolism, the extreme subtility and the mystery of his work is not something that is given away immediately.
Dominique Vangilbergen tries to put the individual (human or animal) in mass culture. He doesn’t judge. He just registers. Where does the viewer stands in this society ? How do we all interprete the information overload ?
That is why DV’s images could be an alternative for the status of media-photography. He forces the viewer to think about his place in our society. Not without giving him or her his own very personal interpretation of the world we live in.