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Artist Céline van Balen (1965 - 2023) 

Title Muazez 

Year 1996 

Material Colour photo, mounted on aluminium 

About the work 

Muazez looks out at you uninhibitedly with her large, almond-shaped eyes. Her face is so close you can almost touch it. But the picture provides too little context to really get close to Muazez. There is no caption, just a name. It is as if the photographer, Céline Van Balen, is challenging you to come up with the story yourself. And then sense how that makes you feel. Can you build the narrative without feeling uncomfortable? Without prejudice? 

About the artist

Céline van Balen photographed people who are not often portrayed, or only in a stereotypical way. She photographed squatters, seven-year-old girls, immigrants and addicts, among others. She also did a series of portraits of Muslim girls, and this image of Muazez is one of them. Van Balen wanted to portray the girls as they are: without special garments or exaggerated smiles, and not posed in surroundings that define what you see. Van Balen studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, graduating in 1997. After a promising start to her career, she withdrew from the art world in 2004. 

In the collection 

Acquired in 1998. De Nederlandsche Bank has nine portraits by Van Balen in the collection. Eight portraits of Muslim girls and one photograph from a series of portraits of seven-year-old girls. Van Balen’s work is part of De Nederlandsche Bank’s art collection because it reveals new perspectives that often go unseen. 

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