Bram Van Stappen – The Geophysical Centre of Dourbes (III)

The Geophysical Centre of Dourbes (III) by Bram Van Stappen
Bram Van Stappen’s The Geophysical Centre of Dourbes (III), capturing the intersection of modern architecture and scientific instrumentation.

The Geophysical Centre of Dourbes (III) is a meticulous photographic investigation by Bram Van Stappen into one of Belgium’s most specialized scientific sites. Established in the mid-1950s by the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) in the rural Viroinval region, the Geophysical Centre of Dourbes was designed to study terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric phenomena far from urban electrical interference. Van Stappen’s lens captures the unique, functionalist architecture and the specialized instrumentation—ranging from ionospheric probes to cosmic ray detectors—that define this “scientific village.”

The book moves beyond mere documentation, presenting the site as a series of geometric and rhythmic patterns. By focusing on the interaction between the local built environment and the surrounding landscape, Van Stappen reveals the silent, almost surreal atmosphere of a place dedicated to measuring the invisible forces of the earth and space. This third volume in Van Stappen’s series continues his exploration of human-made structures and their underlying codes. Through high-contrast imagery and precise composition, the publication highlights the historical and aesthetic significance of a site where Cold War-era science meets contemporary observational technology. An added inspiration to his work was the coexistence of the numerous scientific instruments continuously registering events occurring at distant locations (on the Sun, within interplanetary space and the magnetosphere) or at the core of the Earth and the intact nature within the domain. The opportunity presented itself naturally to dedicate this book to the 70th anniversary of the centre and to include a concise history.

Bram Van Stappen's work questions the photographic medium in itself. He scans image element after image element, subject after subject, switches between abstraction and figuration, and focuses on the materiality of the subject or print. He searches for the uniqueness of an image or tries to arrive at an archetype through obsessive repetition. From medium format to cheap point-and-shoot cameras are employed to get a grip on the sometimes unreal everyday, to extract a comprehensible microcosm from a complex pool of impressions, atmospheres, people, places, and situations. All this with an often anomalous photographic frame and a disorienting point of view to reduce his motifs to their most abstract form in an endless search for the code of the aura of the image.

Linen hardcover
258 pages
15.6 x 15.6 cm
750g
English

Editing and sequencing: Bram Van Stappen
Design: Bram Van Stappen

Texts: Bram Van Stappen, Dr. Simo Spassov, Dr. Danislav Sapundjiev, Ir. François Humbled

Publication date: September 2024
ISBN: 9789464002492