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The Present Condition

The landscapes of ‘The Present Condition’ derive from a journey of more than 15,000 km by land by the artist between the two geographical extremes of South America. The video is suffused with a surreal atmosphere, where real and imaginary spaces intersect. Concepts such as human intimacy, desire, work, the savage capitalism that builds cathedrals in the desert, the perverse bureaucracy and the construction of the border wall are just some of the elements that are mixed in a striking and suggestive mosaic of images.

file sp 2019 videoart

منير فاطمي
Evolution or Death
Fatmi inverts spectacular representations of identity by rendering them mundane and within reach of a subject that may scramble any conclusive narrative. Fatmi’s work counters strategies of interpellation that identifies a subject with an ideology prior to that subject’s ability to place their identity in or beyond a particular ideology. Fatmi parodies the various interpellations of colonialism and capitalism that seek to define others according to symbolic narratives. In Evolution or Death, 2004, (fig. 4) two Anglo-European looking subjects imitate suicide bombers with books and papers taped around their abdomens. One holds open a trenchcoat and another holds up a book that looks like a detonator attached to wires. Fatmi reverses the situation. These are not the suicide-bombers from Arab and Muslim countries. Instead, they appear to be of European descent in a European street or modern room in casual clothing.

Джозефин Мексепер
Josephine Meckseper is adept at critiquing her environment. She questioned the prosperity of the art world by placing an “Out of Business” sign in the window of a gallery in Chelsea (a similarly cheeky “Help Wanted” sign attracted up to 20 applicants a day who had failed to get in on the joke). In 2012 she erected two 25-foot oil rigs in the heart of Times Square to remind unsuspecting tourists about the perils of capitalism and industrialization. Her work critically examines mass media, our consumption-obsessed society, and even our political systems.

АНДРЕАС ГУРСКИ
안드레아스 거스키
安德烈亚斯·古尔斯基
أندرياس غورسكي
アンドレアスことスキー
אנדריאס גורסקי
Bahrain
Andreas Gursky makes large-scale, colour photographs distinctive for their incisive and critical look at the effect of capitalism and globalisation on contemporary life. Gursky studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie in the early 1980s and first adopted a style and method closely following Becher’s systematic approach to photography, creating small, black-and-white prints.

Андреас Гурски
안드레아스 거스키
安德烈亚斯·古尔斯基
أندرياس غورسكي
アンドレアスことスキー
אנדריאס גורסקי
Andreas Gursky makes large-scale, colour photographs distinctive for their incisive and critical look at the effect of capitalism and globalisation on contemporary life.

Андреас Гурски
안드레아스 거스키
安德烈亚斯·古尔斯基
أندرياس غورسكي
アンドレアスことスキー
אנדריאס גורסקי
‘Pyongyang I’
Andreas Gursky makes large-scale, colour photographs distinctive for their incisive and critical look at the effect of capitalism and globalisation on contemporary life.

Ruins of capitalism
Autrefois une métropole florissante, au cœur du monde industrialisé, Détroit était un exemple de la manière de réaliser le rêve américain. Aujourd’hui, la magnificence qui caractérisait autrefois cette ville demeure sous la forme de ses bâtiments abandonnés. Au cours des cinq dernières années, un projet a été en vigueur pour préserver et immortaliser les bâtiments comme preuve de la magnificence de son passé.