Thomas Struth stars at MAST Foundation with exhibition Nature & Politics

From February 2 to April 28, 2019, the MAST Foundation in Bologna presents Nature & Politics, a selection of large color photographs taken by Thomas Struth (Geldern, 1954) since 2007 at industrial sites and research centers around the world that represent thevanguard of experimentation and technological innovation. One of the best-known artists on the international scene, Struth, in the twenty-five large-format images on display in MAST’s PhotoGallery, shows us places that are usually inaccessible, giving us a glimpse into the world behind advanced technology.

Space research laboratories, nuclear facilities, operating rooms, drilling rigs are photographed with meticulous attention, detached curiosity and a keen aesthetic sensibility. The artist focuses attention on machines as instruments of transformation of contemporary society and shows us a series of scientific and hyper-technological experiments, new developments, research, measurements and interventions that at some unspecified time, in the present or in the future, in a direct or mediated way, will break into our lives and change their course. Through these works we are able to perceive the full complexity, scope, and force of the processes, but also to sense the power, the politics of knowledge and commerce that they conceal.

On a different thematic side, on level 0 of the Gallery, in the 2003 video installation Read This Like Seeing It For The First Time (“Read it as if you were seeing it for the first time”), the artist depicts human labor, man’s own ability to operate with the utmost manual and artistic precision. The video, which records five classical guitar lessons conducted by Frank Bungarten at the Lucerne Music Academy, illustrates the timely interaction between teacher and students, the necessary exchange between teaching and learning, between giving and receiving.

The exhibition has free admission and opens daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.). For Art City Bologna, extended openings until midnight on Feb. 2 and until 8 p.m. on Feb. 3. For more info visit the MAST Foundation website.

Pictured: Thomas Struth, Chemical Chapel, University of Edinburgh (2010) © Thomas Struth

Thomas Struth stars at MAST Foundation with exhibition Nature & Politics

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.