Idol
Magazine clipping
26 x 33 cm with frame
2007

Those who look down from the heights conjecture about what is happening in the city; they wonder if it would be pleasant or unpleasant to be in Irene that evening. Not that they have any intention of going there but Irene is a magnet for the eyes and thoughts of those who stay up above.
(Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities)

In Italo Calvino‘s book Invisible Cities Marco Polo reports on the different cities he has visited. For instance he tells about a place named ‘Irene’ which is a city that can be seen only from the distance but never from inside. People gather at a high plateau where they have an impressive view of Irene‘s skyline and talk the whole time about how they imagine life there could be. But never anybody goes down to check how everyday life in this city really is, if the structure they see from the plateau is a city at all. The object in the distance functions as the ideal projection screen: it is the image of potentiality per se and within the speculation about its nature desire becomes manifest.

The image above is a picture of ‘Irene’ taken from the plateau. I once found it in a magazine and carried it with me, looking at it and showing it many times and on closer inspection I actually started to see much more than ever was depicted. It became an initial point of my work.