Quartier des Filles

Yser metro station, along the Brussels ring road, between Boulevard Émile Jacqmain and Quai au Foin is the only real prostitution area in Belgium. From morning onwards, girls from the East, Bulgarian or Romanian, as well as Belgian and Chinese, line the walls.
"Flesh against a backdrop of stone".
The conveyor belt of men can begin. 

“Bring them back to the present moment, make them come. Everything is permitted here; all you need is an agreement”.

I take part in these morning excesses. Meetings with Elena, Cheryl, Lala, Bibiane, Deyana, Nicoleta, Bobo, Coseta, Ghislaine, Marie-Jeanne... I rent the room and take time.

”Are you blushing? ...
- Yes, it's intimate. When I go upstairs with a client, his hands do not touch me. There’s no kissing; it's very mechanical, just sexual. Here, in front of the camera, it's very intimate”.

This work is about a poetics of the city, about the role the red-light district plays.
Traduction : Louise Jablonowska

© Philippe Jeuniaux, Souliers, série Quartier des Filles, 2018 / © Philippe Jeuniaux, Rue du Pélican, série Quartier des Filles, 2019 / © Philippe Jeuniaux, Rue de Laeken, série Quartier des Filles, 2022