M HKA Ensembles

° 1960

Born in Salzburg (), lives in Brussels ().

Originally born in Austria, Aglaia Konrad has long been a prominent member of the Brussels arts scene. Her research-based photographic practice reveals a programmatic interest in the effects of globalization and economic homogenization on urban space, and its subsequent transformation into a proliferating array of non-spaces (suburbias, conurbations, transportation hubs). Large-scale photographic murals depicting the chaotic anarchitecture of such sprawling megalopolises as Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Mexico City actively question the received wisdom and established conventions of twentieth-century architectural photography. One of her artist publications was fittingly titled “Elasticity”, a direct reference to the ‘flexibility’ necessary for re-imagining the contemporary global city-scape. In 2002, Konrad participated in Paramount Basics (Extended), a hybrid, expansive ‘solo’ exhibition dedicated to the work of another Brussels-based artist, Richard Venlet, itself a continuation of Venlet’s exhibition proposal for the 2001 Sao Paulo Biennial in which Konrad had also been involved.