2005/2006
Views of the exhibition Opere d'arte 36, Galleria Miscetti - Rome 2007
The title of this photographic work Die Kunst und das schöne Heim (Art and the Beautiful Home) cites the title of a (west) German journal which, from the late 1940s until the mid-1980s, presented architecture and art in connection with home decor. Here as well, it is a question of ideas of social models that are illustrated through the design of interior architecture in a way that transgresses boundaries. In their construction, these presentation of idealized interiors refer to the utopian, progressive ideas that are inscribed in the architecture of the times, and are also suggestive of that "happiness on Earth" which is said to be attainable via possession of the commensurate objects.
Alba D'Urbano and Tina Bara have re-photographed photo illustrations from the 1960s which appeared in this journal and in a number of other international architectural publications (for example Pierluigi Serraino & Julius Shulman's Modernism Rediscovered) which show residential interior décor, design and interior architecture. Interieur and interior architecture are used here as shells that are productive of yearnings; they contain the figures which present these objects as though in dream landscapes. In these photoworks, the photographs - previously reproduced and already given circulation through the media - become backgrounds and environments within which the women from the KUNSTWERKE 36 video can again act, and which contain the same 36 objects: this time however in serial and photographically recorded gestures which advertise each object expressively and emotionally.
The characteristic aspects of ownership of such commodities, with their promise of true happiness, as continually celebrated in the highly aestheticized and glamorous domestic scenarios of the mediatized spectacles offered by such advertisements, are analyzed and presented here with reference to the relationship between subject, object and context. The marketing gestures of the actors contrast with the second-hand surfaces of the objects themselves. The actions involved in such performance are thereby displayed in their utter absurdity.
Presentation: inkjet printing on handmade paper, 24x30 cm, wall installation with 116 works.
pictures selection 1
main project