S Series, Beate Gütschow's photography

Beate Gütschow S Series

S#1, 2004.

A space is defined only by differentiation from another space, for which it needs walls that serve as barriers or borders. These are mainly conceived and put in place by man.

S#24, 2007.

S#2, 2005.

S#7, 2004.

S#10, 2005.

S#11, 2005.

To live is to pass from one space to another, while doing your very best not to bump yourself.
Georges Perec

S#22, 2007.

S#30, 2008.

S#31, 2009.

S#26, 2007.

Artist's Statement

Cities grow, and in doing so they occupy increasingly large amounts of space – the built environment is the greedy counterpart of the natural realm. A space is defined only by differentiation from another space, for which it needs walls that serve as barriers or borders. These are mainly conceived and put in place by man. 

The walls and virtual boundaries around spaces usually have some form of opening that define one’s own position and allow one to enter a different space. Georges Perec describes this perfectly in his book Species of Spaces: To live is to pass from one space to another, while doing your very best not to bump yourself.

In the S Series I investigate urban space, whereby I am particularly interested in architecture as a representation of ideology and in the international equality of built structures. My photographs present cities that do not exist in reality. I use computer software to assemble new cityscapes from buildings I have photographed all over the world. The resulting images are visual utopias that reflect modernist thinking, its desire for structure and its idealism. A key characteristic of modernity was an unshakable belief in progress – the idea of a process of sustained growth that would ultimately lead to a perfect society. In terms of its clarity and functionality, modernist architecture symbolises this faith in rationality. In my images, these very structures are shown to be crumbling; their substance is rotten.

About the photographer

Born

1970 Mainz, Germany

Nationality

German

Based in

Berlin and Cologne, Germany

About Beate Gütschow

Beate Gütschow studied at Hochschule fur bildende Künste, Hamburg with Bernhard Johannes Blume and Wolfgang Tillmans, experimenting with painting and video as well as photography. Her most recent exhibitions include The future will never arrive at Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College (New York) and Gärten der Welt, Museum Rietberg, Zurich. Her works are in the collections of Berlinische Galerie, Guggenheim New York, Kunsthaus Zürich, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Prizes, awards and residencies include Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn (2011), Nirox Foundation Johannesburg (2008), Ars Viva, Berlin (2006) and Stipendium Villa Aurora, Los Angeles (2001).