‘ENTER THE MODERN LANDSCAPE’

Cities are often seen as vibrant laboratories in which certainties of the past meet with current and future societal challenges. However, upon closer look, rural areas increasingly appear to be the place where the political, economic and social balances of entire regions are really at stake.

As our planet reaches a breaking point, it is time to critically re-examine the role of the different actors shaping such diverse territories. At a time of climate change and shifting paradigms our man-made environment bears testimony of a growing unease about how soil and natural landscapes have been gnawed away by industry and urban sprawl.

The exhibition Enter the Modern Landscape reflects upon a European heritage made up of 20th century rural settlements, whose implementation was guided by ideologies of various kinds that have crossed and marked this century - whether they be capitalist, communist, or other. The exhibition travels through this European modernist landscape of kibbutzes, soviet collective farms and colonised territories in 12 chapters, bringing together extensive archive material with the work of photographers and filmmakers such as Chris Marker & Alain Resnais, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Winfried Junge.

Enter the Modern Landscape is an exhibition organised in collaboration with BOZAR and MODSCAPES, an important research programme across several European universities.