Frankfurter Kunstverein presents Maya Schweizer / Clemens von Wedemeyer METROPOLIS. REPORT FROM CHINA on view 11 March–8 May 2011.

Maya Schweizer/Clemens von Wedemeyer, Metropolis, Report from China (Turm), 2004-2006. Production photograph, 2006 © Maya Schweizer and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011. Courtesy Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, KOCH OBERHUBER WOLFF, Berlin

The central work of the exhibition “METROPOLIS. REPORT FROM CHINA” is Maya Schweizer and Clemens von Wedemeyer’s film by the same title. “Metropolis. Report from China” is an artistic comparison between Lang’s utopia of the 1920s and a contemporary communist system verging on capitalist working conditions. The project investigates aspects of the utopian in architectural environments and thereby raises the question as to the relevance and social reality of such urban utopias. In their film, Schweizer/von Wedemeyer refer to social-critical issues and the architectural settings of major historical events. Through images as well as conversations and interviews with workers and architects responsible for the construction of the Chinese mega-cities Shanghai and Beijing, the film thus documents the urban fabric, which is determined by social inequality.

For the exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Maya Schweizer and Clemens von Wedemeyer are showing a reworked version of their project “Metropolis. Report from China”, which they present as a dense installation of photographs, slides, and film-historical material. Also on view is Maya Schweizer’s work “Newlaville”, which through the use of large posters and slides draws on a 2002 advertising campaign promoting the radical modernization of old neighborhoods in Beijing.

CURATED BY: Holger Kube Ventura, Stefanie Spiegelhalder

MADE POSSIBLE BY: The exhibition is taking place in conjunction with Thermostat, a cooperative project involving 24 French centres d’art and German Kunstvereine. It is an initiative of the association of French centres d’art, d.c.a and the Institut français. The project is also supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the French Ministry of Culture and Culturesfrance, and the German Commissioner for French-German Cultural Cooperation.

Frankfurter Kunstverein
Steinernes Haus am Römerberg
Markt 44
60311 Frankfurt
Main, Germany
www.fkv.de

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