Michael Wolf, Life in Cities installation, 2019
Michael Wolf: Life in Cities
Traveling Retrospective
Traveling Retrospective
June 16 - August 14, 2019
10787 Berlin, Germany
November 17, 2018 - March 3, 2019
House of Photography at the Deichtorhallen
Deichtorstraße 2, 20095 Hamburg, Germany
May 10 - July 22, 2018
Corso Magenta, 61 - 20123, Milano, Italy
January 20 - April 22, 2018
Fotomuseum Den Haag
Stadhouderslaan 43, The Hague, The Netherlands
Stadhouderslaan 43, The Hague, The Netherlands
July 3 - August 27, 2017
Eglise des Frères Prêcheurs
1 Quai Marx Dormoy
13200 Arles, France
For the first time ever, working in close collaboration with the Hague Museum of Photography, the Rencontres d’Arles is presenting a selective overview of the autonomous works created by Wolf. Wolf’s key 21st-century theme is life in cities, as he observes it in vast metropolises like Tokyo, Hong Kong and Chicago. The striking feature of these impressive series is the changing points of view adopted by the artist in order to show the complexity of modern city life. The magnum opus of the exhibition is The Real Toy Story installation (2004), featuring over 20,000 plastic “Made in China” toys found by him in junk markets and second-hand shops in the United States. Amid this overwhelming array of mass-produced stuff for kids, Michael Wolf shows sympathetic portraits of individual Chinese assembly-belt workers producing toys to satisfy the manic worldwide demand for cheap consumer goods.
Wim Van Sinderen
