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BLOODY HAZE

MAP OFFICE [Gutierrez + Portefaix]

BYOB - 2nd HK-SZ Bi-city Biennale 2009
Curated by Marisa Yiu
In situ installation
Inverted Binocular and Maxi Binocular

“As far as I am concerned, I try to direct my telescope through the bloody haze upon a mirage of the nineteenth century, which I seek to depict according to those features that it will show in a future state of the world liberated from magic.”
Walter Benjamin, Briefe, Vol. II, Letter to Werner Kraft, of 28 October 1935.

Notion of visibility and invisibility are centered to “Bloody Haze”. The predetermined intensification of the magnifier allows the construction of a new reality. The distortion by means of optical instrument: the binocular create an illusion of being close or being far while always being at the same position. Shooting or murmuring at someone mediated by this inverted projection. The multiplication of the reality is here reinforced by the instrument itself, i.e., the 2 lenses and then again multiplies by 2 in ordered to experience the two extremes variations: so far... so close!

Then, the skyline or the subject of this optical experience is the mere illustration of capitalistic development to become its best representation. The celebration here takes the shape of a fragmented heroism. Each of its components disappears for the construction of singular masse that is aiming at becoming a single mediated image to acquire its status of Skyline and to become hyper visible (when the weather allows it).