Futureland is a photographic and video portrait of the effects of rapid urbanisation
Futureland #17 – Shanghai, China, 2010. Ink jet print, 110 x 145 cm
© Nuno Cera and Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, reproduced with thanks
Nuno Cera’s project Futureland catches the process of rapid urbanisation in the act. Between 2008 and 2010, the photographer travelled between nine of the world’s fastest growing cities as they rush towards the future (and the sky). Rather than the gleaming metropolis, however, Cera’s photographs and videos portray the delirious repetition of mass housing and crowds, and slums giving way to building sites giving way again to slums. The exhibition catalogue quotes Rem Koolhaas, whose writings on Lagos might be seen as an appropriate adjunct to the images: “People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course, that’s both liberating and alarming”. Commenting on the chosen locations (LA, Dubai, Istanbul, Mexico City, Cairo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Jakarta), Cera has stated, “Each of these cities has its own scale, form, density and diversity that shall be quantified, memorized and compared. From an artistic, personal and subjective view, the project transmits a temporary experience of new and old Mega Cities on their transformation to future Giga Cities”.
Born in Beja, southern Portugal, in 1972, Nuno Cera now divides his time between Berlin and Lisbon. Spike asked him about his attitudes and working methodologies:
How are your working days? Are they casual or disciplined? Driven by deadlines or goals? Do you work every day?
My working days are rather structured and organised which helps to stay focused and concentrated within a rather ‘casual’ and ‘non-organised’ atmosphere and nature within the contemporary art scene, art production and discussion I feel surrounded by (in Portugal). I try to separate private and working areas. I am lucky therefore to have my own studio in the centre of Lisbon, where I work every day of the week. I usually arrive in my studio around 10am and leave at 6pm. I see myself as disciplined in a way and I try to work concentrated and effective. Since I moved to my new studio in Lisbon, I have been starting to organise and sort my ‘archive’ from the past 10 years – meaning old research material, texts, photos, prints and negatives, articles published about my work, documentation about past exhibitions of mine, etc. Sometimes my working schedules are driven by a deadline, some times rather by my personal goals. When I am facing a huge production outside the studio, I normally try to prepare the schedules and teams carefully beforehand. Somehow I feel it is important to keep working and to development my work even if the conditions or perspectives are not the right ones…
Do you own original work by other photographers?
Yes, I do. I own a few photos from some artist friends.
What influence does your photography and video work have on the rest of your life?
My work is the prior and central point in my life. The work is constantly influenced by my life and vice-versa. I really can’t separate one from the other.
Do your cameras have distinct personalities? Or do you consider them merely as tools?
Different cameras offer very different forms of seeing. They are rather tools to reach a goal, but at the same time they open and offer me different ways of photographing and seeing the reality.
Do you ever face a crisis in your work, one that perhaps demands a new direction or a temporary boredom? How do you deal with it?
There are always the two moments of input and output. In the moment when I feel the need to read more, see more exhibitions, travel, watch more movies, I enter into a process of input of ideas and stimulus. Then there are moments of creation and output, where I am very focused in my work and in the production. Generally I would not apply the term ‘crisis’ onto my case – I do not feel a crisis or being in crisis – I rather feel the need and demand of ‘input’.
Futureland #4 – Bombay, India, 2010. Ink jet print on Hahnemühle paper, 45 x 60cm
© Nuno Cera and Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, reproduced with thanks
Further Reading:
Nuno Cera’s website with extensive examples of his work
Nuno Cera’s page at at Galeria Pedro Cera
An essay on Futureland by Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove