With works by Cao Fei, Richard Mosse and Paulo Nazareth, the exhibition EXTREME. NOMADS takes a look at forms of nomadic existence that are conditioned by political and economic developments of our time. It is not only the individual and social consequences of globalization that are extreme, which the artists, who come from three continents, investigate. Their artistic strategies also prove to be borderline.
Cao Fei (b. 1978 CN) processes in her works the profound changes that her home country China is undergoing in the wake of economic growth. Inspired by US zombie films, the artist presents Haze and Fog, a fictional portrait of a service society suffering from a loss of identity, transforming one of Beijing's newly built housing estates into a haven for the restless undead. Conceived as a 46-minute feature film and photographic series, Cao Fei's work tells of a rigid class system in which a few wealthy consumers rely on a uniformed army of cleaners, deliverymen, brokers, domestic servants and prostitutes. If the title Haze and Fog initially seems to refer to Beijing's air pollution, as it progresses the fog turns out to be a state of mind.
Richard Mosse (b. 1980 IE/US) works at the intersection of artistic production and journalistic reportage. In his works Mosse confronts the viewer with military image technologies, which he uses against their original function in favour of a new documentary form. His most recent works, Incoming and The Castle, respond directly to the flight movements in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa - the largest migration since the Second World War. While the film installation Incoming, created in collaboration with the composer Ben Frost and the cameraman Trevor Tweeten, documents the routes taken by refugees, the photographic image group The Castle makes visible the living conditions in the shelters. For both series, Mosse used a military surveillance camera capable of measuring thermal radiation over a distance of 30.3 kilometers.
Paulo Nazareth (b. 1977 BR) has made running the starting point of his artistic practice. Addressing his origins as a Brazilian with indigenous and African roots, he crosses entire countries and continents on foot and on his own. The photographic and filmic series he creates along the way, as well as the writings and objects he finds, tell of the encounters and marginal stories of his travels, of understanding and resistance, colonial history and the global present. Beyond national borders, Nazareth spins a web between individuals and communities, juxtaposing the concept of nation-state with traces of transcultural connections and appropriations.
Source and further information: http://mmk-frankfurt.de/de/nc/ausstellungen/ausstellung-details/article/ray_2018/
