Charif’s book “Welcome to Belgium” (2003) is like a testimony, a diary, or the screenplay of a film, ending with a catharsis in which the personal story is interwoven with the detached, documentary image and in this sense becomes part of a larger history. All this is done without pathos, however. This hybrid form, being involved and not being involved, curiously enough results in a kind of parallel world, a vacuum in which it is possible only to look. The real and the fictional are brought to an almost pictorial standstill, resulting in a blown-up image, which takes on a virtual life of its own. […]

This book is so strong that I do not think these words of mine are capable of providing a reply, since within the duality sketched above the sovereignty of the images prevails. Furthermore, recent developments in the world and the consequences they will have, especially for the western hemisphere, make this book more topical than ever. Immigration policies will become even stricter, borders will close and despair will only increase. Charif shows us in four sections a specific situation, which is immobilised with the black and white of his images with a well-defined question: To what is the creator or the onlooker witness?

(Excerpt from: Luc Tuymans, ‘Welcome to Belgium’, in: Charif Benhalima, Welcome to Belgium, Ludion Press, Ghent, 2003.)

Charif Benhalima, born 1967 in Brussels (Belgium).