A Comprehensive Andreas Gursky Exhibition Takes Over MAST Fondazione

The Industrial Revolution marked a momentous historical change introducing faster and more efficient ways of manufacturing, but it also traced the path to the birth of capitalism. This pivotal economic change transformed how society operates, giving rise to a mode of existence balancing production and consumption. Fascinated by the aftershocks of consumerism, German photographer Andreas Gursky has aimed to capture the diverse layers of producing and record how it transforms the panorama by permeating the landscape.

This year, Fondazione MAST is inaugurating the celebration of its tenth anniversary and the centenary of G.D Company with the show Andreas Gursky: Visual Spaces of Today.

The Poise of Production

Düsseldorf-based photographer Andreas Gursky, notorious for his large-scale photographs that embrace the viewer, has been elegantly capturing the poise of production for over four decades. Striking images of cluttered warehouses, cargo ports devouring landscapes, and never-ending market shelves present an overwhelming depiction of contemporary accumulation. Gursky contrasts them with other gatherings by turning his lens toward banks, traffic hotspots, and the stock exchange. Thus, Gursky achieves a powerful gradation in portraying the seemingly mundane facets of our contemporary reality, as curator Urs Stabel emphasized in the exhibition catalog:

In the specific, the current, and the contemporary, he seeks recurrent signs of the rules and structures of global cohabitation, production, action, and order.

The show Andreas Gursky: Visual Spaces of Today comprises forty photographs encompassing Gursky's earliest works, such as Krefeld and Hühner from 1989, and his most recent production V&R II and V&R III, 2022. From glimpses into the cramped storages of Amazon to the tranquility of the ancient production process in Salinas, Andreas Gursky immerses the viewer in remote, peripheral perspectives of human labor.

The Illustrious Industry

In Fondazione MAST, the acronym MAST refers to Manifattura di Arti, Sperimentazione, Tecnologia (Arts, Experience, and Technology), encapsulating the organization's mission to present a platform for initiating and developing discussions on the notion of work. On the other hand, G.D is a company specializing in industrial solutions with a distinct technological identity. The two contrasting associations have been united for a joint anniversary celebration under the slogan "making work a culture and culture a work" that reflects their vision superbly manifested by Andreas Gursky's photographs.

Further propelling the mission to unite production and creativity, Fondazione MAST announced the sixth edition of Foto/Industria this Fall, the photography biennial devoted to industry and work.

Andreas Gursky at Fondazione MAST

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalog published by Fondazione MAST featuring a foreword by President Isabella Seràgnoli and an illuminating essay by curator Urs Stahel. Concomitantly, Fondazione MAST collaborated with the artist to engage in the fundraising campaign "Un aiuto per l'Emilia-Romagna" by Agenzia per la Sicurezza territoriale e Protezione civile dell'Emilia-Romagna. Andreas Gursky signed a limited edition of 75 posters Bahrain I, which will be on sale for €150 at MAST Point, with the profits directed to those affected by the devastating floods in the Emilia-Romagna region.

The exhibition Andreas Gursky: Visual Spaces of Today, curated by the artist and Urs Stabel, will be on view at Fondazione MAST in Bologna until January 7th, 2024.

Featured images: Andreas Gursky – Visual Spaces of Today. Installation view. Fondazione MAST. Photo Luca Capuano. All images are courtesy of Fondazione MAST.