Jan 24

Jan 24 Exhibition Review: Ilka Kramer - The crazy grass, the right angle, the horizon and the giraffe

© Ilka Kramer, from the series *The crazy grass, the right angle, the horizon and the giraffe*

Ilka Kramer’s photographic work has always focused on the perception of space, or rather on the link between architectural forms, nature, and people. Her interest has driven her to Le Havre, a French town in Normandy which, at the end of the World War II, was the most damaged city in France. At that time, architect Auguste Perret worked on the reconstruction project of the city. The result was a composition where full and empty alternate, leaving free interpretation to whoever wants to appropriate it.

As Ilka Kramer arrived at Le Havre in 2018, she experienced a vast space around her in which she could breathe and walk freely and pleasantly, all thanks to the wide streets and sidewalks promoting easy circulation.

The feelings initiated by that experience, alongside the geometry and the symmetry of the architecture, have pushed the artist to explore, appropriate, and freely and artistically transform the urban space. At the end of this long process, Ilka Kramer created imaginary places in a post-energy dystopia.

This exhibition connects the geometric shapes of the architecture with nature in all its forms, such as real or imaginary animals, weeds and wild flowers, men and women. What are the possible ways in which the living can interact with the public space? With the help of cut-outs, models, and collages, this project attempts to challenge the viewers’ perception – make them doubt what they see, rethink their point of view: an invitation to take climate change as a chance to change public space, to return and reverse one’s priorities to a more friendly, safe, vibrant, green, and productive place.

The exhibition will be open to the public from October 16, 2021 to February 26, 2022 at Le Forum, Maison de l’architecture de Normandie, Rouen, France. For more info, visit the Ilka’s website