Architecture of Fear

Oct. 2, 2011 - Dec. 31, 2011

z33, Hasselt, Belgium

Architecture of Fear explores how feelings of fear pervade daily life in the contemporary media society. The cause of fear seems interchangeable and constantly fluctuating. Shifting from one thing to the next, often relating to invisible or indirect phenomena’s (terrorism, viral diseases, pollution, financial crisis), anything has the ability to become a potential threat. Rather than an immediate emotional strategy for survival fear is becoming a constant low level feeling in the background that gives rise to a new global infrastructure based on security, prevention and risk-management. Architecture of Fear brings together a selection of international artists and designers that reflect in different ways on the society of fear, ranging from registration and critical research, to exploring its emotional, social and spatial mechanisms. Shortlist artists: Bureau D'Etudes, De Geuzen, Floris Douma, Laurent Grasso, Ilkka Halso, Susanna Hertrich, Charlotte Lybeer, Jill Magid, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Tracey Moffatt, Trevor Paglen, Marie Sester, Kin Wah Tsang and Els Vanden Meersch.


Works Shown

Big Box

2007, Sculptural video installation with video display

In the two Big Box sculptures, models of an American-style big box shopping mall are placed on a slowly rotating turntable. The clean, nearly featureless buildings facades have been modified. In one reality, a trash-filled wasteland, and in another an over-grown jungle. In the wasteland, zombies have made advances. In the jungle, the mall has been converted to a biosphere. A single camera films the scene, presenting it as a drive-by view on wall mounted monitors.

Soft Rains #6: Suburban Horror

2003, Installation with video projection

Soft Rains consists of multiple platforms. Each platform represents a familiar cinematic archetype or genre rendered in miniature (60s Arthouse, 70s horror etc). The miniature ‘heroine’ of the work, clad in a distinctive red dress, is pictured in each of the sets. The live feed from each video camera is connected to a computer-based video sequencer, which switches from one camera to another to create an edited sequence appearing as a large scale projection. Suburban Horror uses images inspired by David Lynch's film Blue Velvet and by John Carpenter's Friday the 13th.