Thomas Florschuetz: Assembly

Thomas Florschuetz’s Assembly series began in 2010 as a comparison of two seats of government built on opposite sides of the world. In the photographs gathered here, the Palace of Justice and the parliament buildings of Chandigarh, planned by Le Corbusier, are compared with Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture in Brasília. Lúcio Costa’s urban plan and Niemeyer’s buildings have distinct roles in that city’s design; the photographic comparison concerns architecture within two planned urban settings.

Florschuetz works close in. His characteristic abstraction comes from tight framing and attention to detail, where visual axes, wall surfaces and recesses merge into compositions that stand free of their architectural occasion. This approach studies how modernist state architecture changes when its geometry is isolated within the photographic frame.

The publication also includes other architectural photographs. These show the demolition of the Palace of the Republic in Berlin, and the New Museum on the city’s Museum Island shortly before its completion and restoration — buildings at very different points in their lives, held to the same scrutiny.

Hatje Cantz published the book in 2013 alongside the exhibition at Museum Wiesbaden, which ran from 27 April to 8 September. It extends to 144 pages and 115 photographs, hardcover, 255 × 302 mm, with German and English texts by Alexander Klar; the volume was edited by Museum Wiesbaden and designed by Thomas Florschuetz with El vivero.

For a collector, the draw is the comparison the series sustains: government buildings in two planned cities, together with Berlin architecture undergoing demolition and restoration. The volume connects Florschuetz’s close attention to architectural detail with different states of construction and transformation, accompanied by Klar’s writing.

Thomas Florschuetz (*1957 in Zwickau) has created an individual aesthetic characterized by an abstraction that is achieved by means of close-up shots and focusing on detail. Visual axes, wall surfaces, and recesses merge to become independent compositions. The Assembly series, which the artist began producing in 2010, is a photographic juxtaposition of the Indian Palace of Justice and parliament in Chandigarh designed by Le Corbusier with Brasilia, the newly constructed capital of Brazil by Oscar Niemeyer. In their comparative treatment, the fact that the seats of government in Chandigarh as well as in Brasilia were conceived on the drawing board is as interesting as the fact that the two architects were teacher and student. Other photographs, for example, show the demolition of the Palace of the Republic in Berlin or the New Museum on the German capital’s Museum Island shortly before its completion and restoration.
 
Exhibition schedule: Museum Wiesbaden, April 27–September 8, 2013
 

Edited by: Museum Wiesbaden
Designed by: Thomas Florschuetz, El vivero, Madrid
Texts by: Alexander Klar
German, English
May 2013, 144 Pages , 115 Photos
hardcover
255mm x 302mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-3651-0

Publisher page editorial text:
| Artistic photographs of public buildings in Brazil, India, and Germany
Thomas Florschuetz (*1957 in Zwickau) has created an individual aesthetic characterized by an abstraction that is achieved by means of close-up shots and focusing on detail. Visual axes, wall surfaces, and recesses merge to become independent compositions. The Assembly series, which the artist began producing in 2010, is a photographic juxtaposition of the Indian Palace of Justice and parliament in Chandigarh designed by Le Corbusier with Brasilia, the newly constructed capital of Brazil by Oscar Niemeyer. In their comparative treatment, the fact that the seats of government in Chandigarh as well as in Brasilia were conceived on the drawing board is as interesting as the fact that the two architects were teacher and student. Other photographs, for example, show the demolition of the Palace of the Republic in Berlin or the New Museum on the German capital’s Museum Island shortly before its completion and restoration.
 
Exhibition schedule: Museum Wiesbaden, April 27–September 8, 2013

Publisher source ↗