Belgian Autumn

In the autumn of 1985, a series of violent and bloody robberies of Belgian supermarkets abruptly came to an end. A group of unknown criminals, referred to as 'The Gang of Nivelles', was held responsible for these heinous acts. Between March 1982 and November 1985, the Gang of Nivelles committed twenty-three robberies and other crimes. In all, twenty-eight people were killed. The father of Jan Rosseel (1979) was one of them. In spite of a thorough police investigation, a file of almost three million pages, found evidence and witness accounts, the perpetrators were never apprehended. This period of terror and violence will remain one of the darkest pages in Belgian history. Almost thirty years later, the case remains unresolved. This book is Jan Rosseel's personal search for the Gang of Nivelles, made up of pictures and documents, reminiscences and references. Text in English, French, and Dutch. Jan Rosseel (Brussels, 1979) studied Documentary Photography at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, The Netherlands and Photojournalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark. His work is best described as visual storytelling. He works as a collector of memories using photography, video and objects. The starting point of his research-based projects is historical events and the notion of memory.