Bebe Blanco Agterberg
NETHERLANDS
Instagram @bebeblancoagterberg
Bebe Blanco Agterberg is a visual storyteller based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She examines history and the reliability of the image in the post-truth era, which forms a grey area where fact and fiction live close to each other. This is the area where Agterberg positions herself. The projects she makes explore the relationship between politics, media and citizens. How these three opponents feed each other, need each other, but also exist in a constant power struggle. In 2022, Bebe Blanco Agterberg was the sixth recipient of the Florentine Riem Vis Grant and had a solo exhibition at FOAM 3H. Agterberg graduated with honours from The Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague and is a member of Futures, a Europe based photography platform that brings together the resources and talents of 14 cultural institutions
• SERIES •
Dear Mr. Welles
On the evening of October 30, 1938 listeners across the United Stated were presented with an unexpected account of a meteor hitting the New Jersey countryside. While hearing loud sirens in the background, the radio broadcast included descriptions of terrifying creatures, war machines and dense clouds of poisonous gas heading towards New York City. Some listeners were in shock by the approaching threat, while others fled their homes or called the police. This broadcast was not a news report, but Orson Welles’ classic production, “The War of the Worlds.”
By visualising letters sent to Orson Welles after the broadcast and recreating experiences of listeners who believed the attack was real, this project investigates if the wave of mass hysteria as The New York Times reported was really true. The work emphasizes how the broadcast became a significant scandal, showing the power of radio and the vulnerability of the country in times of crisis. The series traces the origins of “fake news” back to Welles’ show.
