THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ROGER BALLEN

It’s the margins of society and the darker side of the human spirit that have always fascinated the world-famous photographer and artist Roger Ballen (an American who lives and works in the South African city of Johannesburg).  People, dolls, rats and reptiles feature against a background of drawings of primitive figures. This distinctive ‘Ballenesque style’ enables him to create his own universe and has made Ballen a cult figure, especially among the young. This retrospective invites you to explore the psyche of Roger Ballen and leaves you wondering just what is real. In the exhibition The World According to Roger Ballen, the visitor also becomes part of his world. The artist has created a gesamtkunstwerk in which installations, videos and drawings form a hallucinatory alliance with his photography of the past fifty years, transforming Fotomuseum Den Haag into a true ‘Ballenesque’ theatre.