Berlin - Künstlerhaus Bethanien - Ives Maes - Die Stadt Von Morgen
13/01/2009
BERLIN - KÜNSTLERHAUS BETHANIEN - IVES MAES - DIE STADT VON MORGEN
16.01.2009 > 01.02.2009
In his photographic works, Ives Maes (1976°) creates controversial portraits of specific historical epochs by combining characters and elements from well-known science fiction films with the venues and architectural remains of past world exhibitions. In the process, he contrasts the faith in technical progress and the optimistic projections of the future propagated by those exhibitions with the darker visions conveyed in science fiction, which view the relevant epochs critically from the future and therefore also focus on negative factors such as racism, the nuclear arms race, or Orwell's state of surveillance.
In his staged photos, Ives Maes brings these opposites together and thus enables the beings from the future - well-known characters from the films - to visit and 'win over' the former venues of world exhibitions, thus developing bizarre and highly ironic narratives that question recent history in a very perceptive way.
On the one hand, the title chosen for the installation - "The City of Tomorrow" - is a reference to the futuristic ideas propagated by the world exhibitions; on the other hand, it signifies the fundamental renewal of architecture as represented by the International Building exhibition of 1957.
More info: www.bethanien.de
Image:
Ives Maes
The Eiffel Tower and the Site of the Buffalo Bill West Show vs the 2nd Historical Colonial Operation
Duratrans on plexilightbox 50 x 625 cm
2008
