Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- Until 2 October, in TrainWorld, next to Schaerbeek station, you can view the photo exhibition Belgian Station Secrets , about the hidden corners and sides of Brussels stations: from rooms where a station master could live almost aristocratically and two royal boxes, to gigantic abandoned halls and worn wooden counters. Brussels hobby photographer Joost Fonteyn managed to persuade the NMBS to open all doors for him.
A “hobby that got out of hand”, is how IT consultant Joost Fonteyn describes his very first photo exhibition, at the age of 58. An assignment as a consultant for the NMBS, during which he visited many stations, a photography course in evening school at Coovi and an article in BRUZZ with photos of the abandoned galleries under Brussels South gave him the idea of working as a ‘station archaeologist ‘ to dust hidden and inaccessible spaces. An interest in the railways had been around since he first travelled by night train from Schaerbeek to Switzerland as a teenager, and visited the predecessor of TrainWorld in Brussels-North.
Train World Heritage, the heritage service of the NMBS, agreed to open all closed doors for Fonteyn, provided that they could also dispose of the photos afterwards. “I wanted to show the unknown architectural splendour that travellers can’t see,” he said at the press release of his work on Thursday.
“In addition, I wanted to capture things that are doomed to disappear. My photos in Brussels South, for example, were mainly taken in the former postal sorting centre on Fonsnylaan, which will soon be completely emptied to accommodate the new headquarters of the NMBS .”
Born and raised from Brussels, Fonteyn (“I don’t do sub-municipalities”) would start in Brussels and then expand to Flanders and Wallonia. “But in Brussels alone there turned out to be so much to see and photograph that we have limited ourselves to that for this exhibition.”
“Of course I would also like to visualise the wealth of stations in Flanders and Wallonia, but that also requires an investment of time from Jessica,” he says, pointing to the Train World Heritage employee who made all the preliminary visits with him.
He talks about the construction workers of the Hilton hotel who stayed under Brussels Central, in a room that also contained a Hilton model hotel room, about the chic room of the station master in Jette, about old station buffets and the workshop for diesel locomotives at Schaerbeek- Formation, which was shunted in early 2000. “There is always a ‘petite histoire’ behind it, there is certainly enough material for a book.”
In the meantime, he is in contact with the municipality of Hoeilaart, in order to be able to photograph Groenendaal station.
In any case, an interest has been aroused in the “invisible transience” of buildings in Fonteyn. As a former Belgacom employee, he wants to contact Proximus to be able to take pictures there as well. “And certainly also Bpost, the post has a lot of quality architecture.”
The exhibition ‘Belgian Station Secrets’ can be viewed from 6 August to 2 October in the TrainWorld museum in Schaerbeek station, and is included in the price of your normal museum ticket.
