Zurich - Kunsthalle->Main Station
The series Without View explores asphalt as the everyday, often overlooked foundation of our cities. The material supports us, connects places, and seals surfaces—yet remains virtually invisible as long as it functions.
In serial tableaux, each consisting of 24 photographs, sidewalks in a single location are documented—a village, a neighborhood, a city, a street. The images predominantly show shades of gray, surfaces, repairs, and traces of use, heat, and time. The origin of the photographs cannot be discerned from the images. Expectations are subverted: urban centers appear just as interchangeable as small towns; diversity and monotony are distributed in surprising ways.
Only the title of a tableau—the name of the place—adds context and alters perception. The image itself remains unchanged, yet the gaze shifts. The work reveals how much seeing depends on knowledge and attribution.
Here, asphalt appears not as a technical necessity, but as an aesthetic, multi-layered surface and as a silent chronicle of urban movement. At the same time, the series alludes to the sealing of our cities and its ecological consequences, without explicitly depicting them. Without a view calls for a precise, unhurried contemplation of the supposedly self-evident.