When is a building not a building?
Filip Dujardin studied History of Art at the University of Ghent, with a specialization in architecture, before studying photography at the Academy of Ghent. After training as a technical assistant for Magnum-photographer Carl De Keyzer, he started a professional collaboration with Frederik Vercruysse. In 2007 he established himself as an independent photographer for private and public clients, in the fields ofRené Magritte and Raoul Servais. In 2008 he presented Fictions, his first series of fictional buildings.
Dujardin’s photomontages are a collection of impossible structures created using a digital collaging technique from photographs of real buildings in and around ghent, belgium.
Most of his architectural creations are structurally implausible, however, seem perfectly ordinary at first glance, revealing their absurdity only as the viewer notices missing or incongruous details. The opus lays claim to his belgian cultural heritage, referencing surrealists such as René Magritte and Raoul Servais – carefully weaving the surreal into the rich urban language.