M City. European Cityscapes
Kunsthaus Graz
Landesmuseum Joanneum
Lendkai 1, A8020 Graz
www.kunsthausgraz.at
Since coming into existence of the modern city, the urban aspect of city living has always held a particular fascination for artists and has become a constant theme for artistic and theoretical examinations. This autumn, the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Graz as well as the entire program of the sterischer herbst 2005 is dedicated to the theme of city. Under the heading of M City. European Cityscapes the visitor will have a great variety of different options and perceptions to deal with this complex issue.
M City is the somewhat mysterious title of an exhibition exploring the new urban cityscapes of Europe. M City could be synonymous for medium-sized town as in the case of Graz; it could mean middle or centre of the city underlining the centrality of todays urban centres; it could relate to city-medium giving expression to the importance of the city as an instrument of communication or to meta-city following similarly named projects like City of 1.000 Geographies by Vicente Guallart or Metacity/Datatown by the Dutch group MVRDV.
City as a Discontinued Model
The European City currently runs the risk of becoming a discontinued model. The changing processes that were originally only visible in metropolitan settings are now also clearly perceptible in the historic city centres of the old continent. It was essential for European cities to nevertheless redefine their functions and roles by adapting to a more complex territorial system combining political representation, cultural consumption, tourism, education and leisure.
These multiple aspects of urban change form the central theme for the current exhibition. They will be represented in a varied repertoire of artistic forms combining the cooperation of artists, architects, urban planners, photographers and designers to allow the visitors the special experience of these changes.
Exhibition as Process
The exhibition is designed as a process-oriented action whose protagonists, artists, architects and city-theorists have followed the invitation and specifically created new works of art and installations for this purpose. The exhibitions architecture designed by the Spanish studio ReD/Research Design can also be conceived as a typical aspect of the dialogue on the European city.
Structure of the Exhibition
The exhibition tour starts on the ground-floor of the Kunsthaus with three installations dedicated to Graz; a model landscape combining replicas of ancient and modern cultural buildings; the image of Graz photographed by Hans-Peter Feldmann and represented by over 300 black and white photographs; and finally myGraz, an interactive installation animating visitors and citizens alike to build a topography of the city with images of Graz.
Space02 then presents the six main themes of the exhibition, while Space01 hosts portraits of six European cities.
Cities as Protagonists
Graz itself features as protagonist for this exhibition alongside five comparable European cities: Basle, Krakow, Trieste, Ljubljana and the urban system of the Ruhr district. Artists, architects and city-theorists have created a portrait of each of these cities featuring both videos and installations. Videos include works by Wilhelm Sasnal on Krakow, Thomas Baumann on Trieste, the Japanese artists Masaki Fujihata on Graz and by Werner von Mutzenbecher on Basel while the show also incorporates substantial installations by Marjetica Potr_ and Kyong Park on Ljubljana as well as the complex urban system of the Ruhr in Germany in the installation by the Dutch Bart Lootsma.
Six Themes. Six Questions
Earthscapes
The installation by the Catalan architect Vicente Guallart explores the geology of landscapes where cities have formed and thereby interprets architecture as a metamorphosis of a singular principle which does not differ between city and countryside, nature and artificiality.
Euro-Sprawl
Two historic works by the American artist Dan Graham (Homes for America and Alteration to a Suburban House) introduce this theme to the visitor, focusing on the concept of Sprawl, an urban and anthropologic- landscape without centre or suburb which is characteristic of todays European as well as American cities. The large installation created by Richard Ingersoll with the Studio Sprawltown in cooperation with the artist Simo Neri documents the spreading of the phenomenon of Sprawl in Europe.
Shopping
Shopping has become an urban mass event integrating various aspects of leisure and culture. It is interesting to note that within that concept the cityscape itself has now become an urban shopping mall. Artists Sylvie Fleury, Andreas Gursky, Matthieu Laurette, Thomas Rentmeister and Stiletto relate to this theme by making glamour and the banality of commodities the subject of their works of art.
Migrations
Migrants live in a city which cannot be a home. They represent a moveable society in which cultural mores, religion, customs, languages and dress codes represent further elements of cultural and social aggregation none withstanding their uprooting. Between the two cornerstones of integration and isolation these groups form intermediary worlds which greatly determine the look of todays cities. A large installation by Lorenzo Romito/Osservatorio Nomade recounts the dramatic and complex occasions of the various communities who lived in the Greek city of Thessaloniki during the last century.
No Vision?
The times of fantastic scenarios for a city of the future are over. Today, when talking about the future of the city as such, one is confronted with such a large number of diverse scenarios including the way of life of its inhabitants, new mobility, globalisation of information or environmental problems that is will be nearly impossible to combine all these scenarios in one project. The installation by Paola Viganó explores new ways of urban living based on a project for the Belgian city of Antwerp. The Microrealities by Aldo Cibic document the attempt to change some of the key-words of a contemporary city (shopping mall, underground-station, city park) by applying a new complex functional structure.
Mapping
The dissolution of the old urban form has necessitated a discussion of the representation of the new non-form of todays city. Diagrams have replaced the old city plans. With the help of computer visions we are able to visualise new urban developments. The photographic representation of city monuments has been replaced by infinite taxonomies, photographic catalogues and sequences. This theme is probably the most extensive part of the exhibition. Versatile projects will amaze visitors: among them the large, fantastic city-models by Chris Burden and the Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa; the melancholic traffic signs by Julian Opie which show animals that have already disappeared from urban areas; the monumental city images by Gerhard Richter representing black and white aerial photographs of cities; the new video by the Italian artist Deborah Ligorio which unites principally disconnected landscapes in a story; and finally the virtual map of Graz which was specifically created for this exhibition by Carlo Ratti with the MediaLaboratory of the MIT in cooperation with the telecom-company A1/mobilkom austria. The map reveals the movements and use of mobile phones in real time within the city of Graz, similar to a big brother observing the daily life in the city and so exploring her special characteristics.
Mapping Special Projects in cooperation with A1/mobilkom austria
A new way of visualisation of urban activities is the topic of both projects: myGraz (Mein Graz) and SENSEable City Lab Installation (MIT MediaLaboratory) integrate the city itself into the exhibition by means of mobile technology and so enable an active involvement in its representation.
Participating artists, architects and designers
Thomas Baumann/Martin Kaltner, Chris Burden, Cibic & Partners, Hans Peter Feldmann, Sylvie Fleury, Masaki Fujihata, Carlos Garaicoa, Dan Graham, Vicente Guallart, Andreas Gursky, Duane Hanson, Richard Ingersoll, Matthieu Laurette, Deborah Ligorio, Bart Lootsma, meinGraz, Werner von Mutzenbecher, Julian Opie, Simo Neri, Osservatorio Nomade, Kyon Park, Marjetica Potr_, SENSEable City Lab, Thomas Rentmeister, Gerhard Richter, Wilhelm Sasnal, Stiletto, Gavin Turk, Paola Viganó.
The exhibition has been created in cooperation with the steirischer herbst.
Curator:
Marco De Michelis in cooperation with Peter Pakesch and Katrin Bucher
Exhibition design:
ReD (Marta Malé-Alemany, Jose Pedro Sousa)
Press conference:
September 29, 2005, 11 a.m.
Exhibition opening:
September 30, 2005, 8 p.m.
Kunsthaus Graz, Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz
Opening hours:
October 1, 2005 January 8, 2006
Tue Sun 10 a.m. 6 p.m., Thu 10 a.m. 8 p.m.
Information: 0043/316/8017-9204
Information press: 0043/316/8017-9213 or -9211
