Brasília – 50 years of a modern utopia

Thomas Kellner: Brasilia a modern utopia – ECCO, Brasília, Brazil

“There is no way to neither classify it as photography nor declassify it as such.” André Corrêa do Lago

Brasília on its 50th anniversary

2005 -2009

Thank you to Karla Osorrio and her team at Arte 21 for supporting my work over 6 years. Now we are able to show a keypart of my work on Brasília's 50th anniversary

A non-stereotypical portrayal of the city's monuments is the objective of Thomas Kellner, whose work not only honor the fiftieth anniversary of Brasília, but also the architect Oscar Niemeyer, as most of the pictures relate to the monuments created by him. The curator of the exhibition is the English critic Paul Wombell, that will be in town for the opening. According to him, "Brasília was designed for movement. A city set on a plot that cuts across the savannah in the shape of an airplane. Brasília wouldn’t be modeled as the Brazilian cities or any other city in the world ".
Kellner, who photographs monuments in various countries for more than 10 years, such as France, the United States of America and China, represents the space with reference to architecture. In Brasília, he searches to display characteristics of the city that are suggested by the original project, such as a city designed in the era of the machine, but worried about the human side. Each monument is presented as "a skeleton forming a network of possibilities: the possibility of new constructions, of a new city, of a new world based on a program of social improvement. This is the network of modernity”...
The spatial isolation of most of the buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer is a valuable context in Kellner’s works. The buildings generally are framed only by the sky and the innovative technique gives the impression that the buildings are dancing or falling apart. His works are handmade: it comes from the design of the artist, then the camera scans the building from a point and this is repeated in various films of 36 poses to complete the reconstruction of the photographed image, recreated, click to click. The final result shows images together, in rebuilding the photographed object, that seems to have dynamic and proper motion.

49#02, Brasília, Catedral Metropolitana, 2005, C-Print, 68,2 x 69,7 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#08, Brasília, Santuario Dom Bosco, 2007, C-Print, 45,5 x 73,3 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#42, Brasília, Congresso, Camara Dos Deputados, 2008, C-Print, 68,2 x 69,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#37, Brasília, Rodoviaria, 2008, C-Print, 136,5 x 52,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#31, Brasília, Conjunto Nacional de Brasilia, 2008, C-Print, 91 x 31,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#50, Brasília, Supremo Tribunal Federal, Night Shot, 2009, C-Print, 91 x 45,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#21, Brasília, Ponte JK, 2008, C-Print, 68,2 x 42,0 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#01, Brasília, Congresso, 2005, C-Print, 91,0 x 90,0 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#29, Brasília, Ministerio, 2008, C-Print, 91 x 52,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#15, Brasília, Catedral Metropolitana, 2007, C-Print, 136 x 69,3 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#39, Brasília, Superior Tribunal da Justica, 2008, C-Print, 91 x 63,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#38, Barsília, Palacio Itamaraty, 2008, C-Print, 68,2 x 42,0 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#49, Brasília, Palacio da Alvorada, Front, 2009, C-Print, 91 x 42 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#57, Brasília, German Embassy, 2009, C-Print, 91 x 52,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#36, Brasília, Palace Hotel, 2008, C-Print, 136,5 x 52,5 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

49#53, Brasília, Centro Cultural, 2009, C-Print, 45,5 x 73,2 cm, edition 9+2/3+1

Brasília - 50 anos de utopia moderna

September 12, 2010 - January 15, 2011

Art Galerie, Siegen, Germany

May 17 - July 25, 2010

ECCO, Brasília, DF, Brazil

Publications

Monographs

Art Galerie, Siegen, John Cleary Gallery, Houston, K4 galerie Werner Deller, Saarbrücken, Galerie Maurer, München, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, in focus Galerie, Burkhard Arnold, Köln (Hg.), Thomas Kellner. Dancing Walls 2003 - 2006, Siegen 10002007.

Galerie Vrais Rêves (Hg.), Thomas Kellner. Contacts 1997-2013, Lyon 10002014.

Kreis Düren (Hg.), Thomas Kellner FarbWelt 135-36. Kunstpreis des Kreises Düren, Düren 2010.

Karla Osorio Netto (Hg.), Thomas Kellner. Brasilia - 50 anos de utopia moderna, Brasilia 2010.

Karla Osorio Netto (Hg.), Thomas Kellner, Brasilia 15002010.

Exhibition catalogues

Jean Arrouye, Un art d'imagination, in: Galerie Vrais Rêves (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner. Contacts 1997-2013, Lyon 10002014, 4–5.

André Corrêa do Lago, Thomas Kellner und die Herausforderung der Beziehung zwischen Fotografie und Architektur, in: Karla Osorio Netto (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner. Brasilia - 50 anos de utopia moderna, Brasilia 2010.

Elena Firsova (Hg.), PhotoVisa Krasnodar 2014. Around The World Thomas Kellner, Germany 2014.

Johann Haehling von Lanzenauer (Hg.), Raw Desires. Brutalism and Violent Structures, Berlin 2016.

Stefanie Scheit-Koppitz, Thomas Kellner. Seeing with and without Camera, in: Karla Osorio Netto (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner, Brasilia 15002010, 41–47.

Stefanie Scheit-Koppitz, Thomas Kellner. Mit oder ohne Kamera, in: Karla Osorio Netto (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner. Brasilia - 50 anos de utopia moderna, Brasilia 2010, 29–32.

Paul Wombell, Skelett, in: Karla Osorio Netto (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner. Brasilia - 50 anos de utopia moderna, Brasilia 2010, 15-19, 11-15 engl.

Frank Günter Prof. Dr. Zehnder, Von der Autonomie des Bildes, in: Kreis Düren (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner FarbWelt 135-36. Kunstpreis des Kreises Düren, Düren 2010, 23–29.

Anthologies

Bundesverband Bildender Künstlerinnen und Künstler Westfalen e.V. (Hg.), Mitgliederverzeichnis 2012, Dortmund 2012.

André Corrêa do Lago, Thomas Kellner and the challenge of connection between Photography and Architecture, in: Karla Osorio Netto (Hrg.), Thomas Kellner, Brasilia 15002010, 13–15.

Ana María Matthei (Hg.), Al Limite. 10 años de arte contemporáneo, Santiago de Chile, Imprenta Maval 2013.

Journals and magazines

Ana María Matthei, Thomas Kellner, in: Arte Global Al Limite, 8, 2011, 102–103.

Rosa Olivares, Arquitectura II. La mirada del artista = architecture II : the artist's view (= Exit : Imagen y cultura, 37), Madrid 2010.

Paul Wombell und Ana Queiroz, Exposicao Brasilia - 50 anos de utopia moderna, Thomas Kellner (Alemanha). Arte e cidade: simbolo, Mito e Utopia - Educacao e Cidadania, Material didactico para professores (= Ecco Educativo), Brasilia 2010.

Newspaper articles

Freddy Langer, Zersplitterte Sehenswürdigkeiten, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 08.03.18, R4.