Imaginary Cities
Imprisoned by the absurd reality we are living in currently, we dream. Between the elusive past and the illusive future we imagine, reinvent, project and explore the possibilities of utopic cities.
Imaginary Cities is a project that will unfold in two chapters: two collaborations exploring cities through the prism of reveries and realities, fluidity and friction, the magical, the playful, and the futuristic…
Chapter I
Pulse
Charlotte Mumm
in collaboration with Frank Bloem
In this exhibition Charlotte Mumm, created a sculptural setting that goes further than the boundaries of haptic form and visible perception. Through a co-production with the olfactory artist Frank Bloem, there is a composition of various odors and fugitive fractions of urban scents released over time and in space. These scents are part of a sculpture which is technically developed together with the artist Lefki Mevissen. Fizzing and scented powder is being activated over time through a circular tube mechanism with water from a dehumidifier. This means that this exhibition will never be the same but always in flux.
Next to that Mumm is showing subtle paintings from the series Phases and Parallels. These paintings offer a way to reflect upon Imaginary Cities in a sort of interspace. The surfaces of these paintings are stretched over a relief-like under-layer. It’s physical and both subtle and tensioned. The paint matter is scanning every pore and mirrors different life forms and parallel existences - linked, in fragile dependency, demarcating territories, in coexistence.
Thinking about Imaginary Cities, the artist was deliberating about the different rhythms and spaces of a city and its inhabitants. Stumbled on and accompanied by the question: Is it possible to create a community where everyone lives according to their own rhythm, and yet respects the individual rhythms of others? by Roland Barthes from his lecture series ‘Comment vivre ensemble’, 1976/77.
The title Pulse refers to these poles of personal needs and the impact of external forces. The pulse of a city, our social coherence is nothing fixed but always in flux. It's complex and involves opposite motifs, ranging from the personal, public, political and the corporate. Especially now in a pandemic and thinking about post-pandemic times, we can’t fall back to what we are used to. It’s important to be aware of that and take care of one’s idiosyncratic rhythm and interspaces in all its imperfection, to keep moving forward.
