Little Castle, Brussels

"In Welcome to Belgium I connect my heritage to that of many others in this country and I make it clear that this is a hard and relentless search for an identity. I take the viewer straight to the subject that dominates my entire oeuvre: the feeling of being an outsider.” Charif Benhelima in an interview with Christophe Van Gerrewey, 2007.

Little Castle is a photographic exploration of identity, memory and social exclusion, set in the eponymous transit zone for asylum seekers near the Square Sainctelette in Brussels. Over a period of 18 months, Charif Benhelima’s lens captured the emotions and experiences of its transient residents. The result is a series of raw portraits that show the everyday reality of migrants and refugees while confronting the complex nature of identity.

Little Castle is part of the book Welcome to Belgium (1990–1999), a nine-year-long investigation into the feeling of being an outsider. In this work, Benhelima juxtaposes photographs of migrants with a 1964 promotional pamphlet that was distributed by the Belgian Ministry of Employment in North Africa to attract workers. It paints a stark contrast between promise and reality.

Charif Benhelima is the son of a Belgian mother and Moroccan father who emigrated to Belgium. His personal quest for identity makes his work universal. With Little Castle, he enters a tradition of socially engaged photography in which artists highlight social issues and excluded communities.