Tales From A Globalizing World

ZURICH EXHIBITION 2004

Sponsor

The exhibition TALES FROM A GLOBALIZING WORLD will be staged in the ewz-Unterwerk Selnau Kultur- und Eventhaus in Zurich from 3 to 19 September 2004 (Selnausstrasse 25, 8001 Zürich).
Open daily from 12am to 8pm. Free admission.

The exhibition is co-sponsored by ewz.

» 'Lange Nacht der Museen' at the ewz-Unterwerk (16 images)

» Images of the venue at the ewz-Unterwerk (3 images)

» Opening speech by Daniel Schwartz (In German)

» Exhibition Events

The ewz-Unterwerk Selnau Kultur- und Eventhaus, in the centre of Zurich, across from the Neue Börse, is a well-known venue for exhibitions and other events. The building, a significant example of industrial, classical Modernist construction, dates from 1930 and was designed by the architect Hermann Herter.

As a whole

Each of the ten assignments – whether a reportage, portrait or essay – constitutes a work in itself in terms of both form and content. At the same time, the individual works are embedded in an overlying concept within which they complement and comment on each other.
The photos from the ten stories are framed and displayed on 121 double stands. The visitor is free to either follow the narrative thread of the exhibition and view the stories linearly or walk around at will, associating the stories and photos with each other. Standing in front of each photo, the visitor enjoys an overview of the ensemble at all times, producing a dialogue between the individual picture and the exhibition as a whole.
This visualizes both the interdependencies of the networked world with its ideology of maintaining an overview, as well as the need to address its individual phenomena, represented by each picture.

241 photos

The presentation enables the observer to interpret each of the 241 photos both individually and in context, thus creating a tension between the photos and the stark grid system in which they are arranged. While this rigid layout represents the process of global standardization, the photos they contain bear witness to the variety of forms this process can take.

Architecture

The design the exhibition illustrates the concept of globalization in two ways. The geometric alignment of the double stands and the resulting grids recall the standardization and certification that characterize the globalization process. At the same time, by interacting with the visitors walking around the inner areas between the stands, the overall set-up also suggests the space of flows created by the global standardization process.