Under Construction
Elisabeth Czihak’s Momentary Shots of Change
If one is going to try to define urbanism, one of its striking features will have to be transformation. The urban condition can be described by its potential to change. The history of the city provides evidence that cities are under pressure to change – cities simply have to change to be able to keep transformative energy alive in an urban dynamic by continuing to produce an ever-new city in the existing one.
At the beginning of the 21st century it is the Chinese cities that are leading the way in terms of the tempo of urbanization. Chinese cities can be seen as both precise and sensitive seismographs that measure the unsuspected extent of the acceleration of urbanization. This shows in a compelling way what changes the cityscape has undergone.
This speed of urban change, the constant reconstruction is a challenge that the inhabitants of cities are confronted with. The reconstruction of cities brings forth new orientations, adaptations, and transformations, all of which have a central influence on the lives of city dweller.
The speed of urban change is also a challenge that the documentation of the history of the present city must meet. The cityscape vanishes the moment there is reconstruction. Cities in flux evade documentation. It disintegrates into moments and fragments and does not result in a coherent, self-contained, complete reflection of itself. The image of the city in reconstruction is one without a cityscape to call its own.
Elisabeth Czihak’s photographic documentations of change lead the viewer into these complex moments and fragments that constitute the innumerable images of a city undergoing reconstruction. We can grasp that we are moving in the urban space, we see fragments of urbanism, but we are unable to recognize the cityscape. We see earth being moved, we see plants that have been covered up, we see broken concrete, we see traditional looking painting surrounded by casually stacked stones. We see cranes, we see construction material, we see the contrast between what once was and what is just being completed. We see something recalling everyday life. We see how difficult it has become to get an impression of the speed of urbanization. We realize that we need many such images to get an idea of the fragmentation that such rapid urbanization implies for the cityscape.
Construction and change are linked through a relation defined both culturally and socially by ambiguity. This relation is imbued with expectations and promises of a better future, of conflicts and contradictions, fears and a loss of history.
When we think about the relation between construction and change and imagine this relation as a conceptual space, then it is precisely the space in which Elisabeth Czihak’s momentary shots take place. One of the decisive questions that this conceptual space raises is that of temporality. How can we conceive of construction and change as states with different systems of time, with different requirements in terms of time and duration? How can we get an idea of these complex relationships between construction and change, each with its own, inherent temporality? In addition to the photographic moments and fragments she has created, Elisabeth Czihak has added a drawing of an endless line. This refers to an ornament taken from the traditional Chinese formal repertory to be used in architecture to mark the transitions between inside and outside. Elisabeth Czihak breaks this ornament traditionally found on windows and doors, always closed, always symmetrical. The line, taken from the tradition of Chinese architecture, has undergone a dramatic change. It has shifted, it is now no longer closed, it has become temporalized, transformed.
Elke Krasny, 2011