Confront(ing) Urbanization: The Interactive Tissue of Urban Life Pro [log]ue
Exhibition Venice Biennale: Time Space Existence European Culture Center - Venice May-November 2021
CONFRONTING URBANIZATION investigates processes of urbanization unfolding in an ever-expanding and contracting mesh of flows and stoppages mediated by infrastructure through which predominately free market forces are channeled, accumulated, and disputed. In this context, urbanization has produced a spatial configuration that is comprised of an ever-expanding formation of visible and invisible conduits functioning as anchor points for predominately privately governed enclosures that are strategically positioned in clusters within this vast field of urban expansion, the urban construct enables continually generic conditions without any connection to its ground. Fenced in and guarded with diligence, these contained clusters are the guarantors for the smooth exchange of data, materials, and currency. While millions of smartphones, shopping malls, and logistic centers expand into the urban terrain, a different urban creature has emerged — a multi-faceted and data-driven urban individual who operates in various realities through the lens of a hybrid, yet privately operating realm. Armed with information and equipped with the latest technology, these individuals consume goods and data through various means and channels to feed the universe, self-revolving, without a beginning or an end.