Urban Landscape
Ensemble
URBAN LANDSCAPE
This notion came to our mind when pairing Chryssa, Guillaume Bijl and Johanna Kandl.
Landscape is a term rooted in nature and its unspoilt depiction, whereas Urban refers to the manmade structures and behaviours governing city life. In a strict sense, Urban Landscape is an oxymoron, or a joke term describing the architectural mega structures that negate the view to the land. Yet, Urban is factually the landscape of the period starting with modernity. The idea of an Urban Landscape, littered with signs of its inhabitance, not only illustrates the shift of population from rural to urban centers, but also exemplifies the paradigm shift in art, from a representation of the ideal to a depiction of the real.
Chryssa constructed her light sculptures from her experience of New York China town, Bijl brought into being experiences uncannily close to societal space and Kandl here reorients the gaze to the scanty towns on the borders.