DE-STRUCTURE

Urban and industrial landscapes: New York, Brooklyn, Barcelona, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Budapest, Ruhr Valley

New exhibition at Podium (Westbahnstrasse 33) where I will be showing many new works available in limited editions. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Crossing the Manhattan Bridge, you look West to see East Broadway and Chinatown, where the Far East adapted to the West in order to provide the West with goods from the Far East. ”Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>Viewed from the Queensboro Bridge, these lively, brightly colored houses appear framed and contained within the lifeless, modern skyscrapers of Manhattan and pop up even through the gloomy weather. Probably not conceived as desirable buildings, they now to stand proud, untouchable, perennial, human. All this maybe thanks to a simple coat of paint. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>I really wanted to mix these two views, among my favorites in New York: The apparently lush and dandy Ansonia versus the gritty, solid as steel Queensboro Bridge. Among the confusion emerge features of the quiet and not-so-quiet nature of the Ansonia. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>My favorite Brooklyn is not the hip gentrified microcosm but the waterfront, its rows of warehouses, water towers, workshops and stray cats. This is all here , in its magnificent grit. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 105x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br> For the discerning visitor, Coney Island is best seen on a cold autumn day, with a veil of clouds turning the sky into a blinding white dome. The weathered food stalls, the decaying merry-go-rounds and all the tacky mystery of the area takes a new shine in these conditions. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>When visiting Berlin in 1995, I felt this somehow perverse frustration of having missed the gloom of the Wall era. That was until I stumbled across this village of squatters, living in discarded Soviet trucks, buses and caravans between the remains of the Wall and the Spree river. A nomadic village without wheels or running engines, for nomads not going anywhere. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>A visual interpretation of a dream. The hustle of the food markets, the excess of information which leads to even more confusion, signs we cannot decipher beyond their aesthetic values. We can only assume things, we can interprete postures, intentions and attitudes but we cannot truly comprehend the underlying system. Maybe this is the key to really observe a culture which is anyway so different to ours. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>Trapped between a fast food and a shopping mall, occupied by cheap fashion stores, teenage clubs and convenience stores, this architectural gem still fulfills its function quietly, adapting slowly and patiently to the passing of time. I passed in front of this station everyday and its most hidden details never failed to ravish me. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>A quiet street of Vienna. Hardly anyone get to see the details of these houses, if not reflected and fragmented in a modern office building below. In a twist of fate, it is a pre-fabricated modern building that allows the pedestrians to fully grasp its surroundings Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Vienna is still a mystery to me as I am drawing my own personal map, connecting what I know, what I ignore and what I imagine. This is one of the mysterious nodes. A seemingly unnecessary bridge over a tunnel that goes I don’t know where, below the city where apparently runs another network which I still have to explore. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>A five-storey parking lot reduced to a single shot. All signs and numbers become just elements of an enigma in a labyrinth Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>In order to capture the traffic entering and exiting the metro station I rode the stairs several times while shooting. This shot combines about 15 minutes of activity. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 60x80 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>The elevator ride out of Stubentor metro station is a delight of interwoven grids of glass and metal. Stand there, watch the movement of the elevators and you will see where constructivism meets psychedelia. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>As in most shows, the best is what happens backstage. Beyond the trendy part of the cultural playground that is Museumsquartier there is an unplanned landscape of narrow streets, serpentine roofs and a mosaic of houses that doesn't get as much attention as the open-air lounge everyone knows. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 70x100 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Something ghostly and silent lives at Herr Klein's house. The house is abandoned since quite some time now, but it doesn't have the majesty or the fragility of abandoned houses that reveals their secrets by fragments. It is clean, cold and doesn't give you a clue. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Palmenhaus is a beetle built out of metal and glass, a house for palm trees and butterflies. It looks to me like a quaint time-bomb, as if the life contained in there would soon burst through it due to the pressure Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>By layering various shots of Barcelona, I saw a rhythm emerging that reminded me of Santiago Calatrava’s work, in contrast with the somehow safe and gimmicky architecture of the Catalan capital. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 40x50 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>This image combines several views of different shopping malls – artificial spaces which seem more faithful to the original small scale model than any real living space we actually need. We wander aimlessly through these spaces, as small as the human figurines that were part of the original scale-model. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>However audacious was the project of La Défense, all I see there is the difference between the original vision and the reality. A void, windy space where glossy buildings reflect other similar glossy buildings ad infinitum like distorting mirrors mocking each other. The humans in all this just drift away, commute and disappear. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 70x100 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br> I was lucky to get near this factory where a seamingly small wrecking ball was trying to demolish a gigantic concrete structure. I stood there for hours, seeing the structure revealing its internal organs but never falling down, like a magnificent monolith. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 136x66 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Deep down the metallic stairs, I looked up to see through the various levels of grates and grids. As I focus on all levels simultaneously, a rhythmic pattern emerges. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Set against a grey sky, the equally grey gasometer shines by its sheer size and its continuous repetitive pattern. This was naturally calling for a rhythmic re-composition of the surfaces and gangways. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 40x50 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>I wonder what is the original purpose of painting this coking plant with such lush colors but as a result, the whole set of tubes, tanks and steel beams emerge from the concrete like giant geometric sculptures against the neutral sky. The overly complex structures defy the understanding of the non-initiated viewer who cannot see the form following function but rather obeying to purely aesthetical rules. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x40 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>A pale grey structure set against an also neutral, pale-grey sky. Squint and all you see is a myriad of colliding shadows. The tubes, gangways and beams disappear to leave only their signature written in a symphony of light and dark strokes, a dazzle-ship pattern that can only be read if you accept to get lost in it. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br> The industrial port of Vienna, although very small, carries plenty of containers with their mysterious labels, like big presents full of our imported lifestyle. <br>We don't know what they contain, but it has to be something we cannot live without. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 50x50 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>This structure in Essen expresses perfectly my fascination with the aesthetics of machines, where the rational principles that guided the original form also participate in creating a composition of rhythm, shapes, weight and textures. <br>Whatever this structure supported is now long gone, and only this colourful network of beams is left, like a sculpture from the Russian avant-garde. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>The French call usine a gaz (gas refinery) something overly complex which defies understanding. The refinery in Schwechat is a perfect illustration of this. An almost organic labyrinth of tubes and pipes breathing in and out, an orchestra of tubas and saxophones playing a toxic symphony. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br> A complex network of cables over the railroad cut the sky in pieces. It only made sense to overlay it again and again into a densely woven fabric. A mesh of high voltage and God knows what Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>The French call Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x100 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered. <br><br>As a real-estate developer decided to disfigure my backyard with another ugly new building, I have had time to stare long enough at this crane to discover its rhythm and play mind games by taking it apart, at least in my mind. Giclée print on Hahnemühle photo rag. 100x70 cm. <br>Limited edition of 10 signed and numbered.<br><br>Between the draped machinery, the hieroglyphic control panels and the giant snail-like turbine, this room exhales the atmosphere of a natural history museum rather than a factory, where mechanical organisms are laid to rest, dreaming of their twenty-four hours shifts of yesteryear.

All work ©2011 Laurent Bompard. All rights reserved