Processes at work in media and society are changing our world and creating spaces in which the borders between fact and fiction are blurred. Die Stadt, die es nicht gibt takes the visitor to kind of the places that lie in between. The works of the 20 photo, film and video artists in this exhibition deal with the everyday reality of image consumption in our urban spaces, and with the news images that reach us from all over the world. They explore the issue of worldwideness and challenge our perception of reality. We think we know these places, and yet, again and again, we find ourselves surprised and fascinated by their farawayness.
The imaginary map of the exhibition stretches from Kohlscheid on the outskirts of Aachen to Peking, from Cairo to Peru, and from Berlin to Chandigarh. Naples, Amsterdam, Fukushima, Hong Kong, Pyongyang, Marseille and Bratislava are all elements of this worldscape. A mosaic of real and imaginary terrains emerges, revealing to us that our view of the world is composed of a wide range of structural, social, political and cultural parameters. This worldview cannot manage without images to satisfy our intellectual and visual curiosity about otherness and about the people who live in other places.
The participating artists: Kader Attia, Stefan Canham/Rufina Wu, Nadia El Fani, Annette Kelm, Aglaia Konrad, Till Krause, Michael Krumm, Armin Linke, Daniel Maier-Reimer, Paolo Pellegrin, Michael Schmidt, Wilhelm Schürmann, Maya Schweizer, Lidwien van de Ven, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Annette Wehrmann, Maja Weyermann, Tobias Zielony, David Zink Yi
Curated by: Dr. Brigitte Franzen, Esther Boehle
The city that doesn’t exist, Installation Views
Photos: Carl Brunn / Ludwig Forum Aachen
