Santa Lucia

Peter Bracke's artwork is called Santa Lucia. The work was inspired by his mother's battle with sight loss. Saint Lucia is the patron saint of the blind and visually impaired. She is often depicted with a bowl in her hand on which her eyes are resting. On the frame of the glasses, Peter Bracke transcribed in braille the inscription 'Light in the Darkness'. On the lenses, he carefully selected and printed images of Saint Lucia. The piece is a subtle and meaningful tribute—both personal and universal—exploring themes of vision, loss, and symbolic resilience.

Peter Bracke is a Belgium artist whose practice formally began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. His multidisciplinary trajectory spans not only visual art but also social engagement and academic inquiry. In parallel with his artistic training, Bracke worked with second- and third-generation migrant communities, pursued a legal career, and undertook postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Travel is essential to Bracke's practice. Whether in Africa, Latin America or Europe, he is drawn to landscapes characterized by silence, emptiness, and a sense of contemplative clarity. Over the years, he exhibited in Ghent, Paris, Venice and beyond. In 2023, he was awarded the Grolla d'Argento at the 44th Premio Internazionale d'Arte Grolla d'Oro in Treviso for La verità su Emanuela, a project distinguished for its poetic and immersive visual language. In addition to his photographic and installation-based practice, Peter Bracke has also contributed to a number of short film projects, further expanding the scope of his visual exploration.

Peter Bracke's creative process starts with an idea that he translates into the medium of photography. Reinterpreting Jean-Luc Godard's famous quote, “We must confront vague ideas with clear images” - he responds in reverse, creating vague images from clear ideas, allowing his work to remain dreamy, ethereal and mystical. At the same time, he explores the distinction between photography and other visual media, trying to express his vision in these intersections, not hesitating in mixing them. In Bracke's work the textures of unusual materials invite the viewer into a tempting, exotic and dreamy world. A recurring theme in his work is the rainforest and natural ecosystems; rather than simply documenting them, he aims to evoke the perceptual and emotional experience of immersion through his photography and installations.
While photography traditionally captures the reality of a single moment, Bracke considers the support on which it is printed just as fundamental. The relationship between image, subject, and medium is central in his creative process.