Ives Maes
16 Jan - 01 Feb 2009
IVES MAES
"Die Stadt von morgen"
16/01 - 01/02/2009
Opening: Thursday, 15th January 2009, 7 pm
In his photographic works, IVESMAES creates controversial portraits of specific historical epochs by combining characters and elements from well-known science fiction films with the venues and architectural remains of past world exhibitions. In the process, he contrasts the faith in technical progress and the optimistic projections of the future propagated by those exhibitions with the darker visions conveyed in science fiction, which view the relevant epochs critically from the future and therefore also focus on negative factors such as racism, the nuclear arms race, or Orwell’s state of surveillance.
In his staged photos, Ives Maes brings these opposites together and thus enables the beings from the future – well-known characters from the films – to visit and ‘win over’ the former venues of world exhibitions, thus developing bizarre and highly ironic narratives that question recent history in a very perceptive way.
In Studio 2, Ives Maes is showing a space-consuming installation with seven photographic works in the form of light-boxes, which lean against the walls of the room and against small walls that have been specially constructed within the space. In addition, he is presenting prints, collages and drawings referring to the 1957 International Building Exhibition in Berlin, during which the Hansa District was newly built. They show details of buildings by the architects Niemeyer, Le Corbusier and Aalto as well as the Akademie der Künste and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and serve as preparatory studies for new photo works by the artist.
Maes plans to present the cult German science fiction series Raumschiff Orion as a foil to the IBA site. With the help of the existing studies, visitors can already imagine what it will be like when the famous spaceship sails in over the Hansa District, which will face subsequent inspection by space patrol Orion. On the one hand, the title chosen for the installation – “The City of Tomorrow” – is a reference to the futuristic ideas propagated by the world exhibitions; on the other hand, it signifies the fundamental renewal of architecture as represented by the International Building exhibition of 1957.
IVESMAES was born in Hasselt, Belgium, in 1976 and lives and works in Antwerp. He completed his artistic training at the Royal Academy of Art in Ghent and at the HISK in Antwerp.
Ives Maes currently holds a fellowship from the government of Flanders, Brussels, and is a guest at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in the context of our International Studio Programme.
"Die Stadt von morgen"
16/01 - 01/02/2009
Opening: Thursday, 15th January 2009, 7 pm
In his photographic works, IVESMAES creates controversial portraits of specific historical epochs by combining characters and elements from well-known science fiction films with the venues and architectural remains of past world exhibitions. In the process, he contrasts the faith in technical progress and the optimistic projections of the future propagated by those exhibitions with the darker visions conveyed in science fiction, which view the relevant epochs critically from the future and therefore also focus on negative factors such as racism, the nuclear arms race, or Orwell’s state of surveillance.
In his staged photos, Ives Maes brings these opposites together and thus enables the beings from the future – well-known characters from the films – to visit and ‘win over’ the former venues of world exhibitions, thus developing bizarre and highly ironic narratives that question recent history in a very perceptive way.
In Studio 2, Ives Maes is showing a space-consuming installation with seven photographic works in the form of light-boxes, which lean against the walls of the room and against small walls that have been specially constructed within the space. In addition, he is presenting prints, collages and drawings referring to the 1957 International Building Exhibition in Berlin, during which the Hansa District was newly built. They show details of buildings by the architects Niemeyer, Le Corbusier and Aalto as well as the Akademie der Künste and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and serve as preparatory studies for new photo works by the artist.
Maes plans to present the cult German science fiction series Raumschiff Orion as a foil to the IBA site. With the help of the existing studies, visitors can already imagine what it will be like when the famous spaceship sails in over the Hansa District, which will face subsequent inspection by space patrol Orion. On the one hand, the title chosen for the installation – “The City of Tomorrow” – is a reference to the futuristic ideas propagated by the world exhibitions; on the other hand, it signifies the fundamental renewal of architecture as represented by the International Building exhibition of 1957.
IVESMAES was born in Hasselt, Belgium, in 1976 and lives and works in Antwerp. He completed his artistic training at the Royal Academy of Art in Ghent and at the HISK in Antwerp.
Ives Maes currently holds a fellowship from the government of Flanders, Brussels, and is a guest at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in the context of our International Studio Programme.