WE ARE ALL TOURISTS (2023-2025)
Olivier Schillen does not see himself as a photographer in the traditional sense, but rather as a silent observer of a visual narrative space that unfolds before his eyes in public spaces. In his series We Are All Tourists, he captures scenes that defy any conscious staging. The actors - tourists, strollers, visitors - enter this stage by chance and without knowledge of their role. Their movements follow no script and their gestures are random.
The visually impressive locations - museums, galleries, gardens, urban squares or historical monuments - serve as backdrops for the interplay between people and space. The visitors become unwitting actors in an event determined by chance - their bodies reflect expectation, disorientation or inertia. In these fleeting moments, small stories are revealed. Fragments of journeys, memories and longings in search of fulfilment.
Olivier Schillen uses these scenes to critically examine the phenomenon of mass tourism and its influence on cities, landscapes and cultural spaces. He creates visual micro-narratives that move between individual moments and collective experience.
Biography
Olivier Schillen was born in Luxembourg in 1961. From 1985 to 1988, he studied art and photography at the École nationale supérieure des arts visuels La Cambre in Brussels. He then gave up his artistic activities completely for almost three decades, without ever abandoning his intellectual engagement with art. It was not until 2016 that he picked up his camera again and has since returned to his artistic practice. His photographic focus is particularly on tourism, with a special interest in cultural tourism.