‘You are Here’ explores interplay of people, architecture

“You are Here: Architecture and Experience”

Now through May… “You are Here: Architecture and Experience”

Now through May 29

Carnegie Museum of Art

Free for Pitt Students

The sight of two Russian “fight clubs” brawling outside of a housing project in St. Petersburg, Russia, might seem most appropriate for a Soviet-era spy film. Instead, it’s part of Berlin-based artist Cyprien Gaillard’s video “Desniansky Raion,” currently on display as part of the “You Are Here: Architecture and Experience” exhibit at the Heinz Architectural Center in the Carnegie Museum of Art.

The exhibit explores the power man-made structures have on human existence — as both exemplars of human ingenuity and also instigators of social decay. The two artists whose works are displayed, Gaillard and Candida Höfer, attempt to illustrate this influence in remarkably different fashions: Gaillard probes modern housing blocks and their social impact, whereas Höfer explores classical architecture with detailed photography.

Gaillard was born in Paris in 1980 and currently lives in Berlin. He explores contemporary landscapes and architecture through a variety of media, including video, painting and etchings. Much of his work deals with the legacy of buildings and landscapes that are left in ruins and the ways in which we interact with them.

The centerpiece of Gaillard’s portion of the exhibit is the 30-minute video “Desniansky Raion,” in which housing projects are seen from several different perspectives: first, through gang-fighting; second, through the demolition of a housing tower and the light show that precedes it; and third, through a panning shot of the innumerable housing blocks in Kiev, Ukraine.

Gaillard said that he filmed in Belgrade, Serbia; St. Petersburg, Paris and Ukraine, and that the video was named after one of the housing sites featured in the piece. He described the video as a depiction of modern housing blocks and their status as places of gang-fighting, entertainment and grandeur — each quality in turn corresponding to the three segments. Gaillard said the process of collecting footage was hands-off: In order to capture the essential madness of the housing blocks, he never interfered with any of the images that appear in his video.

“I wanted to show the chaos of our structures, like how the rubble that is created after a demolition is recycled into the concrete for more structures,” Gaillard said.

Tracy Myers, the show’s curator, said this exhibit differs from other events the Carnegie Museum has held in the Heinz Architectural Center.

“There isn’t a single architectural drawing in the entire show. There’s a far more personal feel to this kind of representation,” Myers said.

The other half of the exhibit features photographs taken by Germany-based artist Höfer. Höfer was born in Eberswalde, Germany, in 1944, studied with Bernd Becher and is identified with a group of German artists best known for their immensely detailed photographs of architecture, landscapes and urban developments. Höfer’s focus is on depictions of architectural interiors.

The massive photographs featured in “You Are Here” depict classic elements of high culture ranging from theaters to museums. In “Ballettzentrum Hamburg III,” the inside of a German ballet is depicted in grandiose detail. Similarly, the massive 6-foot “Musee du Louvre Paris XX” potrays sculptures from the Renaissance, like Michelangelo’s “David,” with insightful nuance.

Myers also said that although these photographs are of architectural interiors, they aren’t simply architectural photographs.

“Architectural photographers create images of what they want — or the architect wants — you to understand about a building,” Myers said. “This is sort of dead-on. She has enough distance philosophically to allow the image, the place, to speak for itself.”

Contextualizing the program are two discussions: one between Myers and Gaillard that took place on March 4, and another scheduled for April 21 titled, “Culture Club: Experiencing Architecture through Film and Photography,” which Myers will lead. Assistant director of communications Ellen James, who helped organize the discussions, said that the conversations were designed to give new insight into the art.

“[The events] are unique in that they allow for a discussion about the art as opposed to just coming and seeing an exhibit,” James said.