perfection monster in preparation
detail installation, mixed media, stickershown at 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, 2009
2050
power building site
Peripheral Structures
Fishing in
Potemkin Village
Today, an increasing number of spatial and social transformations are taking place outside of the so called established and historically manifested representational (city) centres. This phenomenon on the one hand applies to former peripheral areas of the world that have become more and more important recently - geo-political shift of power towards new "players" for instance on the Asian and Latin American continent. On the other hand it can be observed in suburban sprawls of nearly every city of the world.
The dynamics of these new peripheral structures create a reality that influences, questions and transforms the definition of centres: For hundreds of years, established centres have displayed their power and culture including the practice of controlling them and represent the economic, social and cultural life of a society. Nowadays the societies' corner stones often move to suburbias, the "centralized peripheries" whereby "centralized" means a desire towards the milieu of the centre, that in turn degrades towards a "marginalized" centre. Where the centre-periphery dichotomy has abolished, there is a co-existence and exchange process between centres in the periphery and periphery in the centres.
People living in or moving to peripheral areas develop their own living structures and realities deriving from everyday needs accompanied by desires for a so called better future. This results in a seemingly paradoxical co-existence of improvisation and perfection. While improvisation, often due to a lack of resources, shows a proper authentic quality by re-definition and recycling of items in new contexts, perfection often comes to weak copies and implementation of habits, culture, architecture and products from centralized global origins.
The perfection monster is fighting improvisation in preparation!
This is especially visible around emerging non-places which are both everywhere and nowhere. These non-places represent a high ratio of the built environment respectively of social spaces, as people tend to spend more and more time at and around non-places, like highways, airports, hotels, gas stations, parking lots or in front of cash machines.
In my work I explore the spatial dynamics and aesthetics around emerging non-places in centralized peripheries where improvisation of everyday life meets the aiming at perfection. These non-places, standardized and very similar wherever in the world, especially come up with a local transformation of global standards in the centralized peripheries and seem to colonise our world in a subtle way.
Videostills, 2009