A Future City From The Past
Looming concrete forms stretch to the horizon, casting shadows across deserted motorways, their articulated facades and pitch black windows bathed in an ominous, silent gloom. No life, just architecture.
These bleak black and white landscapes, dominated by the imposing geometric structures of the scaleless super-Brutalist megacity, overwhelm with their uncompromising, overpowering corporeality.
German artist Clemens Gritl imagines an enigmatic vision of radically aggressive futuristic urban dystopias – a merciless extension of Brutalist dogma.
Inspired by the revolutionary social visions of mid-century architecture, as well as literary works like J.G. Ballard’s High-rise and Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock, Gritl’s detailed 3D computer models refract and redefine the “urban utopias” of the 20th century. His digital scaffolds erect disturbing architectural possibilities for an imagined urban future, reminiscent of the dark atmospheres found in sci-fi films such as Blade Runner or Clockwork Orange.
The photo-realistic presentation is closely aligned with architecture photography of the 1960s. Gritl however inverts the optimism inherent in the documentation of the architectural zeitgeist of its era — the monuments become monsters.
„The choice to create the works in black and white ensures the plasticity of brutalist architecture is illustrated in its purest form.“ the artist explains.
Technically, Gritl's work blurs the interfaces between photography, CGI - computer generated images, CAAD - computer aided architectural design, image manipulation and digital painting. Archaic and new digital techniques of the Information Era, are woven together.
Through his dystopian vision, Gritl highlights the discrepancy between rapid technological advancements and human experience. The landscapes are meant to evoke mesmerizing and menacing emotions in viewers at the same time.
> click on any image for more details
