EXIT
Arquitectura II. La mirada del artista Architecture II. The Artist’s View José Manuel Ballester / Gabriele Basilico / Sergio Belinchón / Victor Burgin Edward Burtynsky / Frédéric Chaubin / Thomas Demand / Roland Fischer / Arni Haraldsson Lucien Hervé / Candida Höfer / Thomas Kellner / Thomas Ruff / Hiroshi Sugimoto / Frank Thiel Textos / Essays: Beatriz Colomina / Simón Marchán Fiz
Aitor Ortiz. Destructuras 021. Kursaal, San Sebastiรกn (Arq. Rafael Moneo), 1998. Courtesy of the artist.
The Aesthetic Perception of Architecture Through Photography Simón Marchán Fiz
Over the past few years we have been witnessing a remarkable proliferation of exhibitions on the theme of architecture, filtered through the techniques and devices pertaining to photography, yet without concealing their aspirations to be valued as works of art. Although at first sight this may seem rather novel, it is only partially so, since the presence of architecture in photography can be virtually traced back to the outset of its invention in the 19th century. However, what is indeed striking is that not only has this artistic genre become so widespread, but that, above all, it is impelling one of the most powerful tendencies in art production. In this direction, the photographs, which were originally limited in format and in their intention to record the existence of a certain kind of architecture which was often in disuse or in a state of ruin, operate afterwards as a meta-language on perception and the aesthetic experience of past and, especially, modern and contemporary architecture. Or, in other words, whereas at first they aspired only to satisfy documentary functions, over the course of time they have been elevated to the condition of works of art mediated by the photographic apparatus. In this shift from the document to the artwork there are numerous crossroads that have to do with both the influence that photographs of architecture have on the inventories of patrimony, tour guides and materials for new projects, that is, with
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documentary nature, and with the reception of the respective references or with aesthetic mediation achieved through photographic techniques, which amounts to be the same thing. We have thus witnessed a change in photography from a technology for the supposed objective reproduction of architecture, to the photography of architecture as an art that endows it with certain auratic valences and openly artistic functions. The reproduction of architecture is indebted to its perception through the photographic apparatus, but, in turn, this mediation affects the aesthetic experiences of these same works, of the constructed references that we find in reality or those that are projected into the future. This is something that can be verified in certain landmarks of the Modernist movement and, more still, in the architecture of “minimalist” origins, but it extends into all periods. In these cases, the photographic fixation of images and the ways they are fixed dismantle the automatism of documentary vision and stop in the denseness of the photographic signifier; technical mediation is surpassed by and sublimated in aesthetics. Nevertheless, despite the fact that artistic devices have recently played a more active role, the tension between the documentary and the artistic institutes a range of variations that have impelled the different attitudes toward architectural photography from its origins to the present day.
Dan Graham. Homes for America (article for Arts Magazine), 1966-67. Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.
Jeff Wall. Morning Cleaning, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona, 1999. Courtesy of the artist.
Lucien Hervé. Unité d'habitation à Marseille, Le Corbusier architecte, 1952. Courtesy of the Lucien Hervé Estate.
Lucien Hervé. Secréteriat à Chandigarh, cabinet du Ministre, Le Corbusier architecte, 1961. Courtesy of the Lucien Hervé Estate.
Gabriele Basilico. Milano, 2005. Courtesy of the artist.
Gabriele Basilico. Milano, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.
Candida Höfer. Mosteiro de Alcobaça I, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Galería Fúcares, Madrid.
Candida Höfer. Ca’ Rezzonico Venezia II, 2003. Courtesy of the artist and Galería Fúcares, Madrid.
Media as Modern Architecture Beatriz Colomina
Thomas Demand sees the media as architecture, in his words “as a vast landscape, a virtual domain with its cities of scandals, its towers of superstars, and its marsh of murders.”1 This may explain why he builds it, why he takes images from the world of the media – photographs of crime sites, most notably – and builds them as full-scale constructions in paper and cardboard, strong enough to stay up only until the photograph is taken, after which he destroys the original model. The new photographs join the media world that originated them. A forensic image of the German politician Uwe Barschel, found dead, fully dressed, in the bathtub of a hotel in Geneva and published on the cover of Der Stern in 1987, becomes Demand’s photograph Badezimmer of 1997; the hallway leading to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment in Milwaukee becomes Flur (1995); the tunnel in Paris where Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed were killed in 1997, which was repeatedly photographed and televised worldwide, becomes the site for Tunnel (1999), a two-minute 35millimeter film loop; a security-camera image of an escalator in London that was passed by muggers before they committed a murder becomes Rolltreppe (2000); a press photograph of the presidential election recount in Palm Beach County, Florida, on the 16th of November 2000, becomes the photograph Auszählung (2001); the kitchen in Saddam Hussein’s hideaway house in Tikrit, Iraq, becomes Küche (2004); and so on. A steady
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succession of supercharged and super-exposed images are reconstructed. It is interesting to note that if Demand takes images from mass-media spectacle, he returns them in an unspectacular mode. The architecture he finds within the spectacle is completely unspectacular. The process is so laborious and time consuming that Demand can make only a few photographs a year. The photographer is working at the speed of an architect, and yet little by little he is building a city made of diverse crime scenes (past and present) and other media-charged sites, which now by association look like crime scenes. These sites are almost always interiors: bathrooms, corridors, kitchens, staircases, dining tables, offices, TV studios, sinks. Even a forest (Lichtung, 2003), a hedge (Hecke, 1996), grass (Rasen, 1998) and the night sky (Konstellation, 2000) become interiors in his photographs, enveloping spaces. A city of interiors, then. A city devoid of people, as if one massive crime had taken place, with Demand as our tour guide through the ruins. In fact, he has said at one point, “I like to imagine the sum of all media representation of the event as a kind of landscape, and the media industry as the tour-bus company that takes us through these colourful surrounds.”2 To walk through a Demand exhibition is to walk through such a city. Why would a historian of modern architecture be interested in such art practices? At an obvious level, all the spaces Demand reconstructs are modern. He is
Thomas Demand. KĂźche, 2004. Courtesy of the artist and SprĂźth Magers, Berlin/London.
Índice de artistas
Eugène Atget. Libourne, Francia, 1857-1927, París, Francia. Autodidacta, empezó a fotografiar a finales de 1880, vendiendo sus imágenes como “documentos para artistas”. Siguiendo la tradición de Charles Marville y Henri Le Secq, se centró en su entorno, y a finales de 1890 documentó lo que quedaba del viejo París tras la rápida urbanización de Haussmann, creando un inventario de la ciudad que más tarde sirvió de inspiración para los surrealistas, especialmente para Man Ray. Fue Berenice Abbott quien rescató su obra del olvido justo antes de su muerte, y quien difundió la obra de Atget fuera de Francia por primera vez. Atget, Archivist of Paris está en el ICP, Nueva York, hasta mayo de 2010.
Gabriele Basilico. Milán (Italia), 1944. Vive y trabaja en Milán. Es uno de los fotógrafos documentalistas más importantes de Europa. Fotografía generalmente en blanco y negro, paisajes urbanos y zonas industriales. Entre 1984-1985 formó parte de la misión fotográfica DATAR comisionada por el gobierno francés, aunque su primer trabajo conocido fue Ritratti di fabbriche (1982), en el que abordó la zona industrial milanesa. A partir de aquí le surgieron grandes proyectos de carácter público que se han convertido en libros de culto: Bord de Mer (AR/GE Kunst, Bolzano, 1990), Porti di mare (Art&, Udine, 1990), Paesaggi di Viaggi (AGF, Modena, 1994), L’esperienza dei Luoghi (1994), una de sus obras más conocidas trata sobre la destrucción de la ciudad de Beirut.
Édouard Baldus. Grünebach, Alemania, 1813-1889, París, Francia. Un precursor de muchos géneros fotográficos, particularmente la fotografía de arquitectura. Experimentó por primera vez con el proceso positivonegativo de Fox Talbot a finales de 1840, y en 1851 su talento con la nueva técnica le llevó a participar en la Mission Héliographique, un estudio del patrimonio arquitectónico francés. A éste siguieron otros encargos: en 1855 documentó la obra para la nueva ampliación del Louvre, produciendo uno de los primeros archivos fotográficos. Ese mismo año el Barón James de Rothchild le encomendó producir un álbum de recuerdos para la Reina Victoria de las vistas desde el ferrocarril París-Boulogne, creando un documento sorprendente del impacto del progreso industrial sobre el paisaje.
Bernd & Hilla Becher. Siegen, Alemania, 1931-2007, Rostock, Alemania; y Berlín (Alemania), 1934. Se conocieron en la Academia de Düsseldorf donde estudiaron y crearon el Departamento de Fotografía. Se casaron y trabajaron juntos, además de impartir clases en Hamburgo y Düsseldorf. Su obra consiste en el registro fotográfico de edificios y plantas industriales, depósitos, minas, fábricas, y otras construcciones cuyo abandono y progresivo deterioro ha configurado un nuevo paisaje de arqueologías postindustriales. Sus fotografías –esculturas anónimas– se caracterizan por una neutralidad y rigor absolutos en la iluminación, las distancias, el encuadre frontal y la composición, confiriéndoles un aspecto científico.
José Manuel Ballester. Madrid (España), 1960. Vive y trabaja en Madrid. Formado en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, sus inicios están enfocados hacia la pintura. Su técnica depuradísima transmite el cuidado y la atención que presta a todas sus obras, sean pintura, grabado o fotografía. Realista desde el punto de vista formal todas sus imágenes poseen un aura de misticismo debido en parte a la soledad y la quietud que emanan. Uno de los temas más recurrentes en su producción es el de la arquitectura que sigue tratando desde sus comienzos y que ya resulta una seña de identidad en su obra. La simplicidad de las formas de los edificios, los juegos de luces y sombras en ventanas, esquinas y pasillos marcan el ritmo de sus composiciones, en las que destacan las líneas puras, los ejes centrales, las simetrías y los ángulos rectos. www.josemanuelballes ter.com
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Sergio Belinchón. Valencia (España), 1971. Vive y trabaja en Berlín. Desde sus primeras series fotográficas, Metrópolis y Roma, su interés se ha dirigido hacia el registro de la cambiante realidad urbana en series como Ciudades efímeras, Suburbia, o Pure. Sus imágenes desnudas de edificios, solares y espacios públicos, sin apenas presencia humana, sólo sus vestigios, retratan aquellos no-lugares que definiera Marc Augé. www.sergiobelinchon.com Jordi Bernadó. Lleida (España), 1966. Formado en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, entre 1990 y 1999 forma parte del equipo editorial de la revista Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme. El paisaje urbano y la ciudad con todo su abanico de contrastes postindustriales y vivencias populares constituyen la base de su trayectoria. Su mirada se ha dirigido hacia multitud de urbes de todo el mundo, desa-
Jan Dibbets. Wayzata Window, 1988. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong, Paris.
E X I T Imagen y Cultura / Image & Culture Revista trimestral / Quarterly Magazine • Año 10 - #37 Febrero / Marzo / Abril 2010 • PVP España: 20 Euros