Charif Benhelima

Charif Benhelima is a Belgian artist. He lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. 
Through the medium of photography, Benhelima deals with the topics of memory/oblivion, time, space, origin, identity, politics of representation, and perception. He gained recognition with the Welcome to Belgium series (1990–99), a nine-year research project on the sentiment of being a foreigner. Besides having worked with analogical photography, he has been experimenting for fifteen years with the Polaroid 600.
In parallel to his artistic research, Benhelima is a guest professor at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK), Ghent. 
Recent solo exhibitions include Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil; Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro; BPS 22, Charleroi, Belgium; Palais des BeauxArts (Bozar), Brussels; Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston; Volta NY 2010, New York; and Künstlerhaus Bethanien GmbH, Berlin, among others. 
Benhelima participated in the Lubumbashi Biennale, DR Congo, 2015; Beaufort, Triennial of Contemporary Art by the Sea, Belgium, 2015; Marrakech Biennale 5; International Biennial of Photography, 2010 and 2012, Houston; and in group exhibitions at the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; MuHKA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; Musée de Marrakech; Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore; Bag Factory, Johannesburg; Shanghai Art Museum; Palau de la Virreina — La Capella, Barcelona; Centro Arte Moderna a Contemporanea Della Spezia, Italy; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires; Witte de With, Rotterdam; EMST —National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; Jewish Cultural Quarter, Amsterdam; and Lunds Konsthall, among many others.