Atomium (Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, Brussels, 1958)
Duratrans on acrylic, lightbox
150 x 187,5 cm
Edition of 1 + 1 AP
2008
Content
Places with a futuristic past incite the artist to a search for what is left from those dreams. That goes especially for cities that, since 1851, hosted World Expos and have built dreamy futures. The future changes rapidly. With that, progress and optimism dominates the manifestations of all World Expos, while in the world of Science Fiction the future is looked upon most critically and dark. Ives Maes compares these different designs of the future. In his photographs he visits the remains of the futuristic visions that had been built with grand luxury: sometimes prestigious monuments, sometimes overgrown ruins. For us remains the big question, how to go ahead without the promise of the modern, into history, before and after the images of Ives Maes.
Excerpt from the text ‘The Future from Yesterday can only become Contemporary as History’ by Hajo Schiff, published for BE-Magazine, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
PROJECT
In THE FUTURE OF YESTERDAY the Belgian artist Ives Maes searched the globe looking for evidence of World’s Fairs. He photographed the architectural remnants of these short-lived events and the sites on which they were built, often revealing an ironic contrast between the grand utopian views of times past and the urban reality of today. His eerie photographs are afterimages, lingering vestiges of now fading dreams.
EXHIBITION
The Great Exhibition
Z33 Art Center, Hasselt, Belgium
26/10/08 – 04/01/09
Curated by Jan Boelen
Solo exhibition
Installation view by Kristof Vrancken
Die Stadt von Morgen
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
15/01/09 – 01/02/09
Solo exhibition
Open Space
Art Cologne, Cologne, Germany
22/04/09 – 26/04/09
Curated by Vasif Kortun, Stefanie Kreuzer & Beatrix Ruf
Julia Bünnagel, Cieslik und Schenk, Alexander Dashevskiy, Lucile Desarmory, Marte Eknaes, Cevdet Erdek, Eric Eley, Joanne Greenbaum, Trixi Groiss, Lone Haugaard Madsen, Diango Hernandez, Chris Hipkiss, Sanja Ivekovic, Schirin Kretschmann, Andreas Lorenschat, Constantin Luser, Ives Maes, Babette Mangolte, Lin May, Jenny Michel, Melik Ohanian, Bruno Peinado, Katrin Plavcak, Blake Rayne, Claus Richter, Bojan Sarcevic, Hannes Schmid, Nora Schultz, Joe Sola, Mariusz Tarkawian, Mark Thompson, Simon Thompson, Tris Vonna-Michel
Images Recalled – Bilder auf abruf
3rd Photofestival Kunsthalle Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, Germany
5/09/09 – 25/10/09
Luchezar Boyadjiev, Candice Breitz, Olaf Breuning, Paolo Chiasera, Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova, Lenka Clayton, Marjolijn Dijkman, Harm van den Dorpel, Elmgreen & Dragset, Amel Emric, Leo Fabrizio, Cyprien Gaillard, Pablo Hare, Joel Holmberg, William Hundley, Iman Issa, Mandy Lee Jandrell, Jan Kempenaers, Miguel Luciano, Ives Maes, Kelly Mark, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Lauris Paulus, Sarah Pickering, Pascual Sisto, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Guy Tillim, The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Rijel Violet, Qingsong Wang
The State of Things
BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium
18/10/09 - 10/01/10
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
30/04/10 – 13/06/10
Curated by Luc Tuymans / Ai Weiwei
Francis Alÿs, Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen, Guillaume Bijl, Dirk Braekman, Chi Peng, Wim Delvoye, Patrick Everaert, Jan Fabre, Dora Garcia, Geert Goiris, Johan Grimonprez, He Yunchang, Kati Heck, Ann Veronica Janssens, Jing Kewen, Kan Xuan, Lui Wei, Lu Qing, Ives Maes, Benoit Platéus, Shang Yang, Shi Guorui, Sui Jianguo, Ana Torfs, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Jan Vercruysse, Wang Luyan, Xia Xiaowan, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, Zheng Guogu, Zhou Xiaohu