GALERIE AKINCI about address contact programme


Stephan Balkenhol
Persijn Broersen
  & Margit Lukács

Yael Davids
Jaap van den Ende
Cevdet Erek
Hadassah Emmerich
Moyna Flannigan
Kirsten Geisler

Matthias Hoch
Juul Hondius
Paul Housley
T
homas Huber
Axel Hütte
Theo Jansen
Elke Krystufek
Petra Morenzi

Lea Asja Pagenkemper
Gerben Mulder
Miguel Angel Rios
Andrei Roiter
Frank van der Salm
Charlotte Schleiffert
Albrecht Schnider

Imogen Stidworthy
Esther Tielemans
Ronald Versloot

Anne Wenzel
Edwin Zwakman
  Shahryar Nashat: Optimism  Digital video, 10'20'', 2003

Back

 




OPTIMISM
In the south of Rome, you find the zone of the EUR. In 1936, the company Ente EUR was created with the purpose of carrying out the Universal Exhibition of Rome, planned for 1942, and never held due to the outbreak of the war. Nevertheless those years saw the construction of buildings such as Palazzo dei Congressi, Palazzo dello Sport and eventually in 1939 the Palazzo della Civiltŕ Italiana. The rationalist architecture of this area is representative of what is today commonly called “fascist” architecture due to Mussolini’s fascination for its purged, symetrical and precise lines that call for order, compliance and submission, and obviously referring to the architecture of the Imperial Rome.

OPTIMISM is shot in the Palazzo della Civiltŕ, taking as a natural stage an environment where the shadow of hierarchy, power issues, corruption and alienation is still heavily present.

B
ased on a character and scenography developed by Gregg Smith, who plays the central character.

Sound by Michele dell'Ambroglio for
playme