Notes on Space (20/08/2020)

Odesa Photo Days

Odessa, Pol?nia

20/08/2020 a 01/10/2020

individual

Notes on Space is an exhibition curated by Tytus Szabelski and hosted by the Odesa Photo Days, in Poland, as part of the 3rd cycle of Parallel Platform. The exhibition, which features Gustavo Balbela's Letters to Ultramarine "aims to shed light on different elements" of the entangled relation between space and its inhabitants. "From the playfulness and creativity of children, creating imaginary spaces from given elements, to the very instrumental role subscribed to the construction workers. And from the abstract interactions with surroundings, to the ideologically saturated, artificial suburban neighbourhoods. Space was and is politicised, gender-biased, and might be even more so in the future, if we fill it with artificial intelligence, fuelled by biased data collected in the past and present. But even today we see our cities, towns and villages changing due to politicians’ will, ideology or huge private investments, tearing apart what was once public and common."

On the exhibition's essay, Tytus comments that despite the fact that "ground that we built our reality on is shaking, the world is not going to stop globalizing. The capitalist economy, the mode of “production of space” as Henri Lefebvre put it, made our cities and towns look as similar as probably never before. In the Eastern Europe, where I come from, we used to call this process “modernization”. For years we have been told about the need to catch up with the West in every aspect. And this process is vividly seen in urban space. But somehow, what seem to matter the most are appearances. From biggest cities to provincial towns, tens of millions and hundreds of thousands were spent on refurbishment, renewal, revitalization etc. Yet the lack of deep, structural improvements resulted in conservative, reactionary populists taking power.

The aesthetic changes, on the other hand, seem to be enough only for those who are already privileged in a given society. Living in a rich neighborhood that looks as taken straight from an American suburbs, is not an improvement — be it in Eastern Europe or South America — it’s a confirmation of one’s social and economic status. Erected in a spirit of postcolonial mimicry, such spaces state that there is some ultimate pattern out there, outside, that we aspire to repeat. To change the division of labour, power, wealth and abilities, real structural changes are needed in political, social and physical space."

The exhibition (that also featured the works of David Barreiro, Caroline Kolkman, Carola Lampe and Sara Perovic) was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the virtual exhibition and the publication of a printed catalog, Odesa Photo Days also hosted a virtual opening with the participation of the artists the curator that can be watched below. 

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