Geert Goiris' suspended and enigmatic landscapes at Palazzo de' Toschi, Bologna, for the exhibition Terraforming Fantasies

Banca di Bologna, at its headquarters in Palazzo de’ Toschi, is hosting from January 29 to February 24, 2019 the exhibition Terraforming Fantasies, the first Italian solo show of Belgian photographer and videomaker Geert Goiris (Bornem, 1971), whose works have been exhibited in prestigious European institutions. The project is among the main projects of ART CITY Bologna 2019 on the occasion of Arte Fiera. The collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna is also renewed: students from the Course in Art Didactics and Cultural Mediation of Artistic Heritage will accompany visitors to the exhibition for the duration of the event.

The exhibition (consisting of a selection of photographic prints of different formats, a slide show and a multichannel video installation, and curated by Simone Menegoi and Barbara Meneghel) will be presented in an ambitious and innovative setting, specially conceived by architect Kris Kimpe, a regular collaborator of the artist. The Salon will be occupied by hexagonal exhibition modules, some closed, others open and accessible, each of which will host photographs or moving images on its walls. The modules, irregularly distributed, will offer the viewer an immersive experience, while leaving them free to choose their own path. The Bologna exhibition is linked to Goiris’ solo show at theRoyal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, scheduled for November-December 2018. The artist worked on the two projects in parallel, resulting in two specular paths whose works largely coincide (but which are completely different in the layout, emphasizing the peculiarities of the two spaces).

The title of the exhibition, taken from the video installation included in it, is Terraforming Fantasies (“Terraforming Fantasies”). The recently created term ’terraforming’ is mostly used in the context of speculation about the future of humanity, and refers to the possibility of making planets other than ours similar to Earth, and therefore habitable for humans, by chemically altering their atmosphere. It is a hypothesis that to date appears to be science fiction, and whose tacit premise is not hard to guess: the ambition to colonize other planets reveals a deep disquiet about the future of our own, over which looms the threat of ecological catastrophe. Goiris explains, “It is misleading to think of ’terraforming’ at this stage. In and of itself it is an interesting concept, but we absolutely lack the technology and resources (not to mention the ethics) to achieve it. To dream of it, however, is deeply human: ambitious, and at the same time tragically far from reality.” The exhibition design itself is related to this theme: “the set design brings a constellation of foreign objects into the space. The intervention is, to some extent, unsuitable, a form of colonization. My intent (and hope) is that it also speaks to human characteristics such as wonder, curiosity, perplexity, and so on. By carefully choosing images and presenting them in a careful setting, I aim to immerse the viewer in a parallel world, a reality that is close to ours but does not exactly coincide with it.”

While not excluding interiors and the human figure, Geert Goiris’ photographic and video research focuses primarily on the landscape. Whether he captures in his images sites at the edge of the world (from Antarctica to the volcanic desert of Dancali, Ethiopia) or focuses on familiar places, Goiris makes them appear suspended and enigmatic, as if they belonged to another planet. A result that is the result of precise technical and stylistic choices: the artist mainly uses a large-format camera, on which he mounts special films (orthochromatic, aerial, infrared). The shots take place mainly during the hours of sunset, at the uncertain hour when light begins to decline and gives way to darkness. The working method is a combination of preparation and chance: Goiris employs the camera with the precision of a consummate professional, but during the long exposure time he favors, potentially anything can happen. How the film will transform the framed subject into an image remains, to some extent, unpredictable. The camera is never a mere conduit through which we can visually connect with the outside world, but a tool for exploring the difference between our “experience” of it and the act of seeing it for what it is. Like the French philosopher and photographer Jean Baudrillard, Goiris seems to have understood that the camera is on the side of the world, and offers us a glimpse into how it appears when stripped of all human projection or interference. In the artist’s images, the ambiguous and unsettling feeling that, since the eighteenth century, has taken the name “Sublime” arises not so much from the terrifying vastness of the sites, or from a disaster we think we see looming over them: it is the result of the distinct feeling of being cut off from any authentic connection with the world.

The exhibition opens Thursdays and Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Openings for Art City Bologna: Wednesday, Jan. 30 and Thursday, Jan. 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 to 5 p.m., Friday, Feb. 1, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 2, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 3, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Image: Geert Goiris, Wetwood (2007; framed archival pigment print, 100 x 127 cm)

Geert Goiris' suspended and enigmatic landscapes at Palazzo de' Toschi, Bologna, for the exhibition Terraforming Fantasies

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