7 pm
Lecture
by Andreas Prinzing (art historian) within the series of lectures “My Theme“
Industrialisation, rising wealth and growth of population, caused a rapid
spread of suburbs in the USA of the postwar period, which stretches across
enormous areas as agglomeration outside the centres of bigger cities
((metropolis??)). These suburbs, which cannot be compared in architecture as
well in their dimension with the German suburbs, form a specific American type
of urbanization. Numerous researches by sociologists and urban planners have
already examined the development of “urban sprawl” into the outer conurbation
areas. While the focus lay on social and scenic processes of reorganization,
these have barely been thematisized as cultural source of inspiration and
subject.
The lecture aims to give a first overview of the most important
representatives of a (as yet) nameless genre, whose image conception can be
characterized mostly as a hybrid scenic and architecture photography.
Therefore, the early work of Dan Graham as well as the documentary work
group by Robert Adams are taken into the focus as well as the contemporary
compositions of images by Gregory Crewdson. Central questions will circle
around the following: Which images of the periphery (of a city) and society are
designed? To which artistic traditions and contexts do the artists belong? How
does a critical debate with suburban common architecture, inhabitants,
lifestyle and the associated myths of the „American Way of Life“ happen? The
insight into this fascinating theme will be completed by little excursions into
the fields of film, literature and press photography.
Andreas Prinzing, born in 1980, has studied history of art, German
language and literature studies and book studies at the Johannes Gutenberg
University in Mainz. Lately, he has written his master thesis on the topic
“Picturing Suburbia – Die US-amerikanische Vorstadt im Spiegel der Fotografie
196-1975“. He is also working as a guide at the Kunsthalle Mainz.
Admission free
Venue: Café im Kunstverein
