Peter Casaer
Photography

​​​​​​​​​​SILENT VOICES

An Iconography of Dehumanisation ​​​​

 

​In the summer of 2025, Peter Casaer launched a photo project about the genocide in Gaza.

For almost two years, our screens had been filled with images of indiscriminate bombings, forced displacement, orchestrated famine, the targeting and destruction of hospitals, the killing of civilians, journalists, and aid workers.

All this happened in full view and in total impunity, despite clear evidence of major violations of international and humanitarian law, of crimes against humanity.

 

The absence of any meaningful international response was seen by many as an erosion of political morality — a “shame for all humanity.” ​More and more people shared a growing sense of grief and powerlessness , of not being heard.

They were not only the ones marching in protests or voicing opinions online. Many simply endured — quietly, often turning away from the news altogether.

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With the Silent Voices project, Peter Casaer set out to meet them.
He worked with the image of a parent holding a deceased child wrapped in a white shroud — an iconography of dehumanisation, a recurring element and building block for genocide.
This image was reconstructed in the streets of Brussels, with random passers-by invited to hold the body of a child.
Their spontaneous reactions were photographed and form the images that make up this series.

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Peter Casaer lived and worked in Palestine for two years.

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EXHIBITION: SILENT VOICES in BRUSSELS

4.11.25-10.02.2026 ​​​​​​​​

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Enabel, the Belgian agency for international cooperation, currently hosts Silent Voices in their building in the Marolles neighbourhood of Brussels.

The images, several  of them showing inhabitants of Les Marolles, is on display on the street-facing windows and in the entrance hall until November 28.​​

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​​​​​​​​EXHIBITION: SILENT VOICES at CONCERTGEBOUW BRUGGE

8.09.25-30.06.2026 ​​​​​​​​

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The series Silent Voices is exhibited in the Concertgebouw of Bruges since September 2025.

For more information see:  https://www.concertgebouw.be/nl/silent-voices​

​Images from the series "Random Encounters" are also on display at the Concertgebouw.

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