Galactic Architecture
Layouts for Galactic Monuments

This exhibition is about images of a futuristic vision of an existential situation waiting to happen. This work relates directly to Earth's temporal awareness and to the factual knowledge that one day Man will have to seek another planet to inhabit.
Constructive, sleek aerodynamic forms float through space. These are monuments commemorating structural milestones in Man's long search for an alternative habitat. The monuments, remnants of possible habitats found, are markers of history and episodes in human lives, made out of floating parts symbolizing Man's floating through this journey. The forms, which will be made of various types of metals, convey the collective power of a tangible human capacity of coming together in search of a new ideal land suitable for human existence. The dynamism reflecting the ability for fast adaptation to a new environment is evident in these monuments' shapes and in the connection between the object to the space and to its means of flight.

The realistic solutions are based on technological abilities allowing for a far-reaching control over Man's physical limitations, expressing his wish to defy Earth's gravity. The abstract, geometrical shapes of these sketched prototypes express a parting from Man's organic sources and a focus on the essence of his intellectual existence. The monument is comprised of condensed, simple forms emanating from complex inter-relationships, which are constantly geared towards flight and the defiance of gravity. The monument as a dynamic monumental image is the expression of a futuristic technical mechanism making use of the dynamic mobility of parts that are able to adjust themselves perfectly to each other so as to form together a perfect abstract form.

The reference to galactic architecture is closely linked to Futuristic architecture, expressing and even announcing the revolutionist reality of the beginning of the 20th century. The futuristic vision of this movement was expressed in conceptualizing a new world based on urban, technologic, energetic and dynamic reality. They were concerned with expressing this new world and even foreseeing it, and therefore created their own version of science fiction.  "We must prepare towards the inevitable and imminent identification of Man with machine, the new aesthetic entity "Man Machine" is beyond the realm of accepted morals…" (Tommaso Marinetti)¹ . In a similar fashion, one can in Neeman's work merges between Man and the elaborate monuments representing his existence.

Neeman's fantastical project also brings to mind the Monument to the Third International commissioned to the artist Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin by the revolutionary department of fine arts in the people's co-ministry of education in Moscow. The model of it, erected in 1920, embodies the fantastical utopian dreams of that time's visionaries regarding ideal social order. Art, serving the new social order and preaching for revolutionary ideas, was directly linked to the spirit of the future and the revolution's utopian aspirations. Neeman's monuments similarly express human progress coming into fruition through collective will. "Structure", for constructivist artists as for Neeman, embodies the identification with the processes of modernization, urbanization, science, industry, technology and digitization with the use of industrial materials and abstract construction with basic elements of line and form. At the time of its erection, Tatlin's tower was actually an utopist monument that could not be built. In contrast, Neeman's aerodynamic visions are based on a magnetization technology. He works under the assumption that this continuously developing technology will eventually enable total control of all parts of these sculptural structures and of the way their parts float in space.

In Tatlin's time, the pioneer Russian rocket scientist and pilot Konstantin Tsiolkovsky created his own cosmic imaginary-scientific utopia, based on a universe floating in space: "the outline of residences here will  be amazingly simple…they will be built to accommodate millions of people. These colonies will be comprised of glass rooms, gyrating weightless through space…for this purpose spherical, ready-made metallic devices and paper-thin sheets of pure metal will also be used…".  Utopist architecture incorporated futuristic design was particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s, as evident in the works of Israeli-French architect Yona Friedman which formed his ideas of "The Spatial City" based on "mobile architecture" as early as the late 1950s. His design for this city was not pre-determined, with spaces constantly changing with time. ²

The clean-lined monuments highlight complex constructions using a terminology allowing for change and dynamism in space in relation to changes in the power of magnets. This futuristic technology is still not usable, but it can serve as a challenge for magnetic engineers who might be able to put it into use in the future. These elaborate constructions, some of which are also kinetic, are built on a mobile base and can be erected anywhere.
Futuristic technology has created here a poetic sublime language, creating constructions of geometric yet refined lines which produce formalistic uniformity and entirety, with a complete compatibility between their parts.
The monuments seem to be rooted in the new global reality. Nevertheless, a reference to the surrounding nature is still connected to natural, unpopulated landscapes familiar to us from Earth. On the one hand, the wish to disengage from Earth to seek residence elsewhere is expressed in the monuments' abilities of flight; while on the other hand, integration in the natural environment is based on realistic landscapes. This creates a duality in the reference to futuristic architecture.

Addressing a time in the future with a realistic awareness of what is to come is examined against technological and digital progress, changing and advancing daily.  
The representation of a view of life as dynamic and adaptive attests to an optimistic view, able to foresee and prepare for the unknown.


Ran Slavin, Tender Prey/Organic Urbanic, 2002-2008, Video and Sound 4  Channel, 12:00 min

In this video work the gaze passes through complex aerial satellite video photography of Tel Aviv. These fantastic videos are conceived through kaleidoscopic examinations to produce an urban mesh of  robotic ornamentations of a future city built from moving architectural patterns.
The artificial duplicity of the environment creates an absurd realm, devoid of rational of linear time and static place.
The familiar city is transformed into a science fiction mutation, driven by mysterious forces. The distorted city is characterized in strange enigmatic spaces.
The kaleidoscopic duplications created a surreal panorama of a threatening and dark city located between a dream and a fast changing reality.
Slavin's search for islands of tranquility and beauty within the horror has resulted in a creation of dystopian beauty.

 

1. D. Ohana, "The vision of Futurism's Demise", Mishkafayim 39, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, December 1999, p. 55.