Gezicht op een zweefmolen met vliegtuigjes op de Wereldtentoonstelling van 1905 in Luik 1905

This photograph of a carousel with airplanes, taken at the World Fair in Liege in 1905, is so strange and wonderful. I imagine this artist, whoever they were, with their bulky camera, trying to capture this modern marvel, this machine of dreams. It’s like a drawing, all line and tone. The structure is incredible – all those wires, the way they radiate from the center, trying to capture something airy and light. I can almost feel the excitement of the fair, the giddy feeling of being lifted up in the air, going in circles. The planes look so fragile. I wonder, did they feel like real airplanes to the people who rode them? Did this crazy machine prefigure flight? Painters are constantly in dialogue with the past, with the possibilities of representation, with the very act of seeing. Each artwork is a continuation of this conversation, a new contribution to the ever-evolving language of art. It's a language of feeling, of intuition, of trying to make sense of the world.