The Itamaraty Palace - Foreign Relations Ministry, spiral stairs, Brasilia
This photograph by French artist Vincent Fournier portrays the sculptural poured-concrete helix staircase in the hall of the Itamaraty Palace, which hosts the Ministry of International Affairs and was designed, along with the greater part of the city of Brasilia, by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. At the top right, on the concrete mezzanine, a geometric metal sculpture by the Brazilian artist Franz Weissmann (1911-2005) offers some visual juxtaposition to the staircase’s elegant curvature.
Fournier’s compositions capture the experience of viewing twentieth century architecture from a twenty-first century perspective, presenting the city as a stage where fiction mixes with reality. This image shows nostalgia for a modernist temple fossilized in a utopian future which did not take place.
Fournier’s compositions capture the experience of viewing twentieth century architecture from a twenty-first century perspective, presenting the city as a stage where fiction mixes with reality. This image shows nostalgia for a modernist temple fossilized in a utopian future which did not take place.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Itamaraty Palace - Foreign Relations Ministry, spiral stairs, Brasilia
- Artist: Vincent Fournier (French, born Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 1970)
- Date: 2012
- Medium: Inkjet print
- Edition: from an edition of 10
- Dimensions: 35 7/16 × 60 1/4 in. (90 × 153 cm)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc. Gift, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.326
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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