Uraban Spirit
dal 2/12/2014 al 20/2/2015
Segnalato da
2/12/2014
Uraban Spirit
Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
The exhibition presents works by Stephen Gill, Will Steacy, Beat Streuli, Sascha Weidner and Michael Wolf. These artists study the 'location' and the 'human' in different ways. Depending on the degree of presence or absence of 'places' or 'humans' in their photographs, they create a suspense which stimulates the viewer to narrate his or her own story.
Urban
Spirit
connotes '
a
commitment
to
an
open
mind,
promises
of
cultural
diversity
and
opportunities
for
optimal
individual/collective
development
in
urban
areas.
Each
city
is
distinguished
by
its
unique
character
and
its
very
own
flair.
Cities
are
able
to
influence
our
identity,
not
least
by
means
of
the
architecture
generated
through
their
histories.
People
may
be
proud
of
their
cities
or
in
a
love-‐hate
relationship
with
them,
but
nonetheless
still
attracted
to
urban
lifestyles.
As
diverse
as
the
city
appears
to
its
inhabitants,
so
are
the
impressions
it
leaves
behind.
Since
the
expressionists
like
Otto
Dix,
Otto
Pankok,
Ludwig
Meidner
o r
Max
Beckmann,
for
whom
the
metropolis
was
a
central
motif,
the
theme
of
the
city
has
b een
taken
up
a gain
and
again
under
the
changing
socio-‐political
conditions
of
a rt.
The
art
discourse
of
the
last
decade
was
increasingly
based
on
the
premise
that
the
city
can
b e
understood
as
a
socio-‐network
of
a ctions
and
interactions
among
its
inhabitants.
The
city
may
act
as
a
v enue
and
theme
of
artistic
actions
and
interventions,
while
it
is
at
the
same
t ime
itself
a
performed
event
constantly
b eing
p erformed
anew.
The
exhibition
Urban
S pirit
shows
five
internationally
active
artists
working
with
the
subject
of
the
city.
With
a
sometimes
ironic,
sometimes
critical
eye,
they
record
in
addition
to
cityscapes
not
only
the
city’s
transitions,
facades
and
details,
but
also
the
city’s
p eople
and
advertising.
Different
approaches
and
views
concretise
in
the
photographs.
Depending
on
the
d egree
of
absence
o r
p resence
of
places
o r
p eople,
the
photographs
create
a
tension
that
stimulates
the
viewer
to
think
of
h er
o wn
story
for
the
image.
Although
the
works
hint
at
the
stories
they
might
a im
to
t ell,
the
v iewer
forms
h er
o wn
in
h er
imagination,
informed
by
her
o wn
cultural
and
social
background.
Such
an
effect
is
realised
by
Stephen
Gill,
especially
in
works
connected
to
h is
home,
the
London
borough
of
Hackney.
H e
draws
on
and
documents
aspects
of
everyday
life,
often
relying
on
austere
and
reduced
compositions.
A s
no
one
has
done
before,
Michael
Wolf
records
in
breath-‐taking
images
the
specifically
v isual
aspects
of
one
of
the
most
d ensely
populated
cities
of
the
world.
Without
roads,
sky,
or
horizon,
space
flattens
into
an
impervious
abstraction
of
urban
expansion.
Wolf’s
d isorienting
vantage
point
gives
the
viewer
the
feeling
that
the
building
might
extend
to
infinity
–
a
f eeling
t hat
perhaps
really
corresponds
to
the
spatial
perception
of
the
inhabitants
of
m egacities.
In
contrast,
Will
Steacy
documents
life
in
the
harsh
urban
a reas
of
America
that
a re
in
economic
d ecline.
In
Sascha
Weidner’s
p hotographs,
the
visible
urban
reality
is
translated
and
condensed
into
enigmatic
images.
Depending
on
the
context,
these
images
create
n ew
narratives.
Working
with
the
motif
of
the
crowd
–
one
known
to
a rt
since
the
19th
century
–
is
Beat
Streuli,
who
has
d ived
with
his
camera
into
the
p edestrian
flows
of
western
cities
for
more
than
a
decade.
Zoomed-‐in
on
with
a
t elephoto
lens
are
close-‐ups
of
irritating
intimacy
–
illuminations
of
the
universality
of
human
a ctivity
in
the
contemporary
metropolis.
Dominique
von
Burg,
November
2014
Image: Sascha Weidner
For further press inquiries, please contact either Christophe Guye at guye@christopheguye.com or Amelie Schuele schuele@christopheguye.comor call +41 44 252 01 11.
Opening: Wednesday,
3rd
of
December,
6
–
8
p.m.
Christophe Guye Galerie
Dufourstrasse 31, 8008 Zürich, +41 44 252 01 11
Opening hours: Monday - Friday 10 am - 18 pm, Saturday 11 am - 16 pm