The photographic work of Charif Benhelima is primarily centered on a quest for identity and the feeling of uprooting that gradually became the drive of his artistic approach. Although deep-down autobiographical, Benhelimas work goes beyond questions of a personal nature. On the contrary, it forms and is formed by sociopolitical discourse of a universal dimension. 

Through the medium of photography, Charif Benhelima deals with the topics of memory/oblivion, time, space, origin, politics of representation, truth and perception. He made a name for himself with the ‘Welcome to Belgium’ series, a nine-year-long research project on the sentiment of being a foreigner. Formally, it’s a documentary approach in black and white on the lives of immigrants, refugees and illegal aliens in Belgium, which echoes his own life. Besides having worked with analog photography, he has been experimenting for more than fifteen years with the Polaroid 600.

Embarking on a kind of countercurrent to the digital medium, he developed a highly personal style, whose images have a timeless quality. Bringing the viewer back and forth between past and present or suggesting a sense of suspension and void, Benhelimas photographs create destabilization, enhance the feeling of transition and obscure the notion of truth.

In parallel with his artistic research, Benhelima is a professor at the Malmö Art Academy - Lund University, Sweden and guest professor at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK), Ghent.

Recent solo exhibitions were held at MON - Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba; MAC de Niterói - Museum of Contemporary Art Rio de Janeiro; BPS 22 - Musée d'art de la Province de Hainaut, Charleroi; Bozar - Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Station Museum of Contemporary Art Houston; Volta NY 2010; Be-Part - Platform voor actuele kunst, Waregem; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; PMMK (Mu.ZEE) - Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende; MoMu - ModeNatie, Antwerp, among others.

Benhelima recently participated at the 4th edition of the Lubumbashi Biennale 2015; Fifth edition of Beaufort, triennial of contemporary art by the sea 2015; the Marrakech Biennale 2014; the International Biennial of Photography 2010 and 2012 Houston; and in group exhibitions at Lunds Konsthall, Lund; EMST - National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam; MAM - Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; Musee d’Ixelles, Bag Factory, Johannesburg; Brussels; Extra City / Center for Contemporary Art, Antwerp; M HKA - Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; Musée de Marrakech; ICA - Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Bag Factory, Johannesburg; Palau de la Virreina - La Capella, Barcelona; Centro Arte Moderna a Contemporanea Della Spezia; Witte de With Rotterdam and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires.