12 gestures

12 gestures by Anna Fabricius (HU)

soft opening on April 18, 2023, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm

April 19 – May 20, 2023

part of the official program of the Budapest Photo Festival 2023
TOBE Gallery | Budapest, Hungary

• with the support of the National Cultural Fund of Hungary NKA

One of the basic conditions for the sustainability of civilisation and human existence is the trust and faith in positive development. For the community and the individual, the promise of a more perfect society, a better quality of life and a happier future is the ammunition that makes the trials of the present bearable, meaningful and survivable. Since Sir Thomas More, these imagined, idealised worlds have been called utopias, i.e. no-places. And while the belief in a bright future is essential for the functioning of society, there are similarly strong desires attached to the stability of the existing order. The familiarity of the present feels comfortingly secure, while the obscurity of change is ominous. Negative visions of the future – dystopias – have been an integral part of the spiritual functioning of society since the beginning of history, but it’s the age of industrialisation and modernity when these dark futuristic worlds became familiar and popular. And by today utopias have become a commonplace of the uncertainty of our everyday existence.

Fabricius Anna’s exhibition ’12 Gestures’ explores the faith in a bright future through large-scale landscapes and portraits. Her utopian/dystopian landscapes capture the ruins of places and spaces designed for the positive rituals of the (now present) future. Built in the 1970s, the futuristic buildingª complex offered mobility, community togetherness and a high life for the Taiwanese elite, whose brief heyday was ended by the oil crisis. The images of the abandoned living spaces on the exhibition wall place the black-and-white portraits into a negative force field. These portraits display present tense gestures of a desired future. How do they see themselves 10 years from now? Their gestures incorporate the function of hope and orientation, depicting the most idealistic and favourable scenario in a single gesture. But can you call a gesture utopian? These utopias of unlimited possibilities are paralysed by the accelerating changes and crises of our world.

a. The Futuro houses were designed by the Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1968. Taiwanese businessman Su Ming (1922-2000) first saw these types of buildings during a trip to Japan, then travelled to Finland, where he was unable to reach an agreement with the manufacturers. Towards the end of the 1970s, he opted to copy the Futuro and Venturo buildings, and then in the 1980s, he erected a luxury holiday complex consisting of more than 100 buildings near Wanli.

Press

Looking ahead into dystopia – Photos by Anna Fabricius, Mercédesz Páskuly | DESIGNISSO