|
|
Stefanie Bürkle
Panorama Paris (from the Useful Illusions series)
Lambda print
31.5 x 78 inches
2001
From the collection of the National Academy of Sciences
© 2001 Stefanie Bürkle
|
Stefanie Bürkle
Berlin-based photographer Stefanie Bürkle's work follows in the epic style that has become associated with contemporary German photography. In her Useful Illusions series, Bürkle offers a comparison between spaces of science and spaces of everyday life to illuminate cultural shifts that occur when theories are moved into reality. In Panorama Paris, the left half of the photograph shows an image of the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. An anatomical model of a man is shown standing at the head of a room stacked full with encased creatures, objects of natural history. The image exemplifies a nineteenth century belief in man's dominance, through knowledge and classification, over his world as well as his own body. Bürkle contrasts this image with an image of a modern day public space: a terminal in Charles de Gaulle airport, outside of Paris. By juxtaposing these two images of public spaces, Bürkle prompts a comparison of cultural and social values, as well as epistemological theory, in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries.
|
