Stadtkörper
In the modern era, cities have been both the source of serious threats to the health of the public and the source of many public health innovations.
Findet Stadt! – This was the theme of the art festival Szeniale 2024. This sentence is a play on words in German an loosely translates to “finding the city” – but also to something close to “takes place” when you exchange one letter.
The paintings I created for the festival exhibtion revolved around the questions: Which traces does the city leave behind in us? How and where can we find them? The paintings exhibited show the effects of urbanity on the human body from a microscopic perspective.
“For better or worse, the development of contemporary societies will depend largely on understanding and managing the growth of cities. The city will increasingly become the test bed for the adequacy of political institutions, for the performance of government agencies, and for the effectiveness of programmes to combat social exclusion, to protect and repair the environment and to promote human development.”
Our lives, routines, habits and therefore also our health are determined by our environment. Life in the modern city is equally characterized by influences on our wellbeing that endanger it and those that promote it. The pictures created for the “Stadtkörper” series show some of the effects.
The series comprises three oil paintings “Kalk” – Sclerosis, “Schleim” – mucus, “Staub” – dust and eighteen smaller works that show sketches and ideas I developped around the main subject. I hope you enjoy this virtual exhibition – and maybe “find the city” from a new perspective.
