Ives Maes
09 Jun - 17 Jul 2010
IVES MAES
"Unification"
Duration June 9 – July 17, 2010
Opening Friday, May 28, 2010, 7 p.m.
Ives Maes exhibition Unification at uqbar takes us to a dystopian world. Imagine if greenhouse gas emissions were impossible to stop, glaciers melted, sea levels rose, and most of the continents’ land was flooded by the ocean, as climate scientists predict may happen within this century. Entire nations would disappear, as well as 90% of the earth’s population. Welcome to a post-apocalyptic, flooded world.
The elements of the exhibition in Berlin are relics of a story to be reconstructed. The central object, resembling a tent, is made of ordinary tarpaulin, a highly resistant material used as shelter against the elements and for protection, carrying on one side the shape of Antarctica overpainted by the artist with oils. On the walls, two lightboxes show enigmatic places, situations, and symbols referring to some kind of post-emergency scenarios. In Berlin Ives Maes further develops his research into the symbolism of real and fictional flags, inserting in the objects on display elements taken or developed on the basis of his collection of flags symbols. As, for example, the “Reunited Nations” symbol, whose shape, colour and logo recall those of the actual United Nations flag, but in comparison to the original a good deal of the continents’ landmass is missing, with only the highest mountains still visible in the world map. This is a vision of how the planet would look like from above, if Antarctica melted and the ocean rose.
As in earlier projects, such as the Recyclable Refugee Camp or the New Europe series, the artist manages to highlight some crucial and odd aspects of the world today. Since the Recyclable Refugee Camp series Maes has been interested in the aesthetic and the officialdom of the UN, its humanitarian purposes and bureaucratic governance. With the Recyclable Refugee Camp project, in an attempt to produce a 100% ethically correct work of art, the artist focused on the UN prescriptions concerning refugee camps, according to which he built some prototype props using biodegradable material. In this exhibition bearing the ironic title Unification, Maes nonchalantly displays the post-atomic, post-national, climate-changed world that we already inhabit. The artist imagines a world after the collapse of the United Nations and the establishment of a new entity, the “Reunited Nations”, comprising what is left of the former nations and continents after the ecological effects of global warming.
Maes’ work, as the artist himself stated in a recent interview, is not really about an abstract future, it is critical research aided by an amount of fiction and speculative projection. Ives Maes does not consider himself a militant or political artist, yet the exhibition provides a strong statement; he delivers no judgement, draws no consequences, only links different stories, information and sources. The result is a disturbing ensemble with mutations of flags that the viewer is left to decipher, with symbols evocative of an obsolete world order.
"Unification"
Duration June 9 – July 17, 2010
Opening Friday, May 28, 2010, 7 p.m.
Ives Maes exhibition Unification at uqbar takes us to a dystopian world. Imagine if greenhouse gas emissions were impossible to stop, glaciers melted, sea levels rose, and most of the continents’ land was flooded by the ocean, as climate scientists predict may happen within this century. Entire nations would disappear, as well as 90% of the earth’s population. Welcome to a post-apocalyptic, flooded world.
The elements of the exhibition in Berlin are relics of a story to be reconstructed. The central object, resembling a tent, is made of ordinary tarpaulin, a highly resistant material used as shelter against the elements and for protection, carrying on one side the shape of Antarctica overpainted by the artist with oils. On the walls, two lightboxes show enigmatic places, situations, and symbols referring to some kind of post-emergency scenarios. In Berlin Ives Maes further develops his research into the symbolism of real and fictional flags, inserting in the objects on display elements taken or developed on the basis of his collection of flags symbols. As, for example, the “Reunited Nations” symbol, whose shape, colour and logo recall those of the actual United Nations flag, but in comparison to the original a good deal of the continents’ landmass is missing, with only the highest mountains still visible in the world map. This is a vision of how the planet would look like from above, if Antarctica melted and the ocean rose.
As in earlier projects, such as the Recyclable Refugee Camp or the New Europe series, the artist manages to highlight some crucial and odd aspects of the world today. Since the Recyclable Refugee Camp series Maes has been interested in the aesthetic and the officialdom of the UN, its humanitarian purposes and bureaucratic governance. With the Recyclable Refugee Camp project, in an attempt to produce a 100% ethically correct work of art, the artist focused on the UN prescriptions concerning refugee camps, according to which he built some prototype props using biodegradable material. In this exhibition bearing the ironic title Unification, Maes nonchalantly displays the post-atomic, post-national, climate-changed world that we already inhabit. The artist imagines a world after the collapse of the United Nations and the establishment of a new entity, the “Reunited Nations”, comprising what is left of the former nations and continents after the ecological effects of global warming.
Maes’ work, as the artist himself stated in a recent interview, is not really about an abstract future, it is critical research aided by an amount of fiction and speculative projection. Ives Maes does not consider himself a militant or political artist, yet the exhibition provides a strong statement; he delivers no judgement, draws no consequences, only links different stories, information and sources. The result is a disturbing ensemble with mutations of flags that the viewer is left to decipher, with symbols evocative of an obsolete world order.