FRANCESCA COMUNE

Behind the Curtain explores the transformation of Cureghem, a former industrial district in Anderlecht, Brussels, that has become a major hub for the trade of used vehicles bound for West Africa. Through a combination of photographic documentation, hybrid digital imagery, and socio-anthropological analysis, the project investigates the asymmetries of aNorth-South economy and the invisible infrastructures of global commerce.The study focuses on Rue Heyvaert and Rue de Liverpool, the epicenter of this highly exclusive marketplace, where five or six key players—mainly from the Lebanese and Belgian-Lebanese communities—control nearly half of the transactions. These deals, conducted almost entirely by phone, highlight a shift in communication, social interaction, and the nature of urban commerce. Yet Behind the Curtain extends beyond economic observation, engaging with the evolving nature of images themselves. In a world where visual culture is increasingly shaped by machine-generated imagery and algorithmic circulation, this project reflects on the shifting role of photography in constructing urban narratives. The project resonates with the historical trajectory of visual representation—from the first traced shadows, as described by Pliny, to the mechanization of vision in the physionotrace, and finally, to the contemporary era where images are produced and exchanged at an industrial scale, often without human intervention. In this sense, the visual strategies employed in the project—documentary photography, coded commercial tags, and hybrid photomontages—function as both tools of observation and subjects of inquiry. These images are not static representations but rather transimages, shifting and reconfiguring themselves within networks of trade, technology, and globalization. This perspective echoes Walter Benjamin’s concept of the loss of aura in mechanically reproduced images, as well as Trevor Paglen’s analysis of an increasingly invisible visual culture, dominated by images created by machines for machines. By integrating these reflections, Behind the Curtain not only unveils the hidden mechanisms of Cureghem’s transformation but also interrogates the nature of contemporary urban imagery—where spaces are shaped as much by commerce and migration as by the circulation of images, data, and invisible infrastructures.