Neue Romantik, 2024
From the first day I arrived at the Cité internationale des Arts, tents belonging to homeless people caught my eye. Since the pandemic, the number of these shelters has increased in major cities around the world. In Paris, they are mainly home to migrants from former colonies awaiting the outcome of their asylum applications. In the context of the uniform cityscape that Baron Haussmann had built a century after the French Revolution, I explored their significance as social sculpture in the sense defined by Joseph Beuys. Demarcation, both spatial and visual as well as social. Intimacy?! Refuge. Mobile dwel-ling. Survival in nature. In the big city, I missed the connection to nature. In the colonial heritage, I discovered my own motif of longing and question our current idea of romance in an every time noicy city.
Grit Reiss 