When it comes to questioning about aesthetic, the South Korean/German philosopher Byung-Chul Han wrote in his book “Saving Beauty” (2015) an idea about 'polished' as the key element of beauty in the 21st century. From the iPhones to wax hair removal, the philosopher describes the concept of the smooth surfaces and how these are the aesthetic sign of our time. The goal is to create objects and experiences that do not exert resistance to the look or touch.
The urban cities are the context where this idea goes through our lives more deep. The place where urban and architectural design takes advantage of the concept of “polished surfaces” to create peace in the forms that presuppose peace for human beings. Contemporary architecture propose cities without conflicts, in whose design the truth of a perfect morphology is imposed on the complexity of human life. Simultaniously, these polished spaces exercise citizen control with the slightest gesture.
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THE IMAGES
The Polished Cities project is structured in different series, displayed together with them, there are architectural construction elements and artifacts that complete the exhibition.
The images work as pieces of a fragmented map of a city, photographs of portions of a contemporary architecture and also decontextualized elements of it. The images, with a refined and minimal language, work at the limit of figuration. Compressing the image so that its shape is at its limit.
This body of work consists of a main photographic series, shots taken in economic and urban centers. Buildings and parts of them appear in this series. Advertising and security elements too.
In The Observer series, several individuals were photographed while admiring the buildings around them. Individuals isolated and decontextualized from the environment that surrounded them to emphasize their gesture as well as the loss of scale in front of the architectural potential.
The third series is titled The Stylite, In it I dissect the pillars and columns that support the weight of buildings in financial areas. In this way I remove the practical utility of these objects and they are relegated to their own sculptural features. The title comes from the religious Christians of the 5th century, who dedicated their lives to prayer and penance standing on the top of a pillar, so that they could be apart from the rest of the people and aspire to their access in the kingdom of heaven.
