Shopping Center Wijnegem, 2000

In a very down-to-earth style Jan Kempenaers visualizes the interior and exterior of the Wijnegem Shopping Centre (ca ten kilometres east of Antwerp). The film consists of a strict rhythm of scores of photographs, presented without any soundtrack. Typical for Kempenaers’ style is the high camera view. Photographs of for example plastic plants, red carpets, shop windows, concrete facades, escalators and vast car parks are invariably taken from high up. In 'Shopping Centre Wijnegem, 2000', the artist does not interpret or comment: in a style that remains as sober as possible he merely documents this artificial world that presents itself as a “non-place”—and as a place without people for that matter, as these consistently lack in Kempenaers’ photographs. Though we know that this shopping paradise is situated in Belgium, the photographs could be taken in any country in this globalized capitalist world: the architecture and the setting of the shopping centre and the products sold are interchangeable with thousands of similar places in this world.