16 February 2012 > 16 March 2012
“You can tell me!”

Tristram Aver-UK, Vincent Bios-IT, Bram Braam-NL,
Sabine Braun-DE, Karina Correa-US, Petr Dub-CZ,
Danny Gretscher-DE, Monika Grycko-PL, Minna Komi-FI,
Stefan Larsson-SE, Mark Powell-UK, Wendy Sacks-US

FACTORY-ART
Mommsenstraße, 27
BERLIN  10629
(City West – Charlottenburg)

www.factory-art.com

Text installation

Title: Generic City

“Generic City” is an installation that consists of portions of an interior with urbanistic scale models built over it. In this process of building-over is a synthesis between an interior and an exterior, where classical elements are combined and used as a foundation in a postmodern approach to the futuristic city model. Different dimensions are mixed together, and these different units of measurement create a fictional reality. By dismantling different elements in the installation and reconstructing the original, the artist investigates questions concerning authenticity and the manufacturability, and the formation of a reality in between an illusion and truth.

The title “Generic City” comes from Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’ thoughts on urbanism and examines the future of new cities and our current city environments. In this context, cities are melded into a technological network that is dominated by a capitalistic financial structure that drives entities into a generic.
Generic urbanism (S,M,L,XL) (Rem Koolhaas)

Generic urbanism describes a non-specific, identity-lacking urban landscape. The generic city has no specific reference points, either to its history or its residents. Rather it responds to urban stereotypes. In doing so, it turns cities into yet another commodity, interchangeable from one another. We can see the result before us as city after city converge in a pastiche of undifferentiated cityscapes