Andreas Fogarasi

b. 1977, Austria

Andreas Fogarasi’s work explores the mechanisms by which architecture and public space are constructed as both sites of daily experience and as spaces defined by political, economic and cultural interests. Using the vocabulary of minimalism and a diverse array of media – video, drawing, photography, sculpture – Fogarasi investigates the capacity of images to inform desire and create potential for identification. 

Commenting on the fact that public sector industries such as city administrations now follow the example of private companies in trying to position geographical locations as brands, Fogarasi presents a series of pencil drawings based on nicknames of cities. Paradoxically specific, yet interchangeable – often introduced with historical or historicizing references – these attributes are less descriptions than desiderata and constructions: conceptual posits that are meant to take on an identity-forging function and seem to promise precisely the distinction gain in the competition of cities, making it interesting for residents, tourists and investors alike. Andreas Fogarasi addresses different aspects of city marketing strategies to then undermine them – for example, when in a series of drawings he also includes unspecific or unattractive attributions such as ‘The Brick City’ or ‘The Steel City’. 

— Jessica Eisenthal / Astrid Wege

(Text: reading the city catalogue, 2009)