Raymond Minnen Belgian, b. 1950

Raymond Minnen was born in Mol in the southern part of the Kempen (Antwerp) shortly after the Second World War, into a working-class family. Apart from a short study period in Antwerp at the end of the sixties, he spends most of his working life in the in Mol. There he developed a unique visual language and working method. He is often inspired by things he finds in thrift stores or scrap dealers.

What is certain is that Minnen is always out to dismantle power itself. Sometimes that is the power of rituals and folklore, sometimes the power of politicians or religious leaders. And often that dismantling takes place through a shift in meaning. In the Senza Titolo series, this is done by showing well-known profile views of religious and political rulers as part of a collage. They are cut from telling pieces of a crate that subtly contradict their power, on a photographic background that sharply contrasts what these so-called political leaders stand for or steam.

For example, Raymond Minnen builds up an oeuvre in which a clash of several worlds is always central. They are often clashes that he has personally experienced in one way or another, because he too is a child of history.