Michael Najjar: Netropolis

The work series entitled "netropolis" is an exploration of the way global cities will develop in the future.

Of similar magnitude to the impact of the industrial revolution in the late 19th century, it is now computer networks and the information society based on them which are the main vehicles for change, the key elements transforming the face of our urban living spaces.

Three main components characterize this transformation: space becomes the image of space, the city itself becomes a terminal as real space fuses with telematic space. In the telematic society material embodiment is further supplemented and extended by virtual representation: the so-called "tele-polis". Telematic space endows the urban environment with a new form of structure, intermingling with it and giving birth to a completely unprecedented form of urban space.

The panoramic view transforms the reality of urban spatial structure into landscape. The digital fusion of panoramic views taken from different angles transforms the landscape into a woven fabric of relationships which is abstract and multi-layered yet still underpinned by a geographic reference point. Viewing the city from a distance inverses the perceptual order of objects viewed in close-up. The view from afar is oriented on what is clearly visible from a distance and provides a context for objects which appear too close when viewed close up and thus retain their strangeness. In virtual space, however, distance and proximity lie on the selfsame level. The different cities and relationship strands need first to be combined and interwoven before they can give rise to a completely unprecedented and imaginary form of urbanity - the telematic netropolis.

The "netropolis" series of works portrays the megacities of Berlin, London, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo. The series comprises of hybrid-photography, video work and a 3-dimensional image sculpture.

In 1993, Michael Najjar graduated from the Bildo Academy of Media Arts in Berlin, Germany’s first private art college for interdisciplinary studies in photography, video and computer animation.

Najjar has exhibited at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Deichtorhallen - International House of Photography Hamburg, Willy-Brandt-Haus in Berlin, Danish Design Center in Kopenhagen, Goethe Institut New York, Arco 2004 in Madrid, Science Musem, London. He has had gallery shows at Lutz Teutloff Gallery in Cologne, Cato Jans Gallery in Hamburg, c/o Gallery in Berlin and bitforms Gallery in New York. The curator Harald Szeemann (Venice Biennial, Documenta) invited him this year to participate in "The Beauty of Failure / The failure of Beauty" at the Museum Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona.

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Michael Najjar: Netropolis