Metabolist Collages
baud, 2023
cœurs métabolistes 2019-2023
This series plays off the notion that dwellings are like living organisms and units are cells, as envisioned by the metabolist architecture movement, which was formed by students of Kenzo Tange in Japan in the 1950s and 60s.
By combining soft, organic shapes with implausibly arranged architectural elements and entire buildings I deliberately introduce an element of pliability and precarity that architecture by its very nature and structural requirements does not and should not have. Whilst I may enjoy complete artistic freedom as I work on these collages, the challenge is to turn these seemingly incongruous elements into something that as a whole takes on a life of its own, and as such, makes sense visually.
The inspiration came from time spent in Kinshasa, an African mega city where urban planning is supplanted by uncontrolled growth. I started photographing buildings that hail from an era that promised a better future for a country that had been savaged by their Belgian colonizers. Today, these structures are but faded remnants of a dream that never materialized, scattered between crass and flashy high rises and shopping malls. Unlike their counterparts from the 1960s and 70s, the nouveau riche aesthetic of these newer buildings makes no pretenses about excluding the masses from the wealth a small elite has accumulated.
metabolist collage a0407, 2024
metabolist cityscape a0396, 2018-2024