In line with an ongoing exploration of the role of images within the relationship between neo-Liberist ideology and collective imagination, with Promise Areas the Discipula collective (Marco Paltrinieri, Mirko Smerdel, Tommaso Tanini) direct their own and the public’s attention towards the realm of international Luxury Real Estate.

The images examined in Promise Areas are renderings used in advertising, produced and utilized within the Luxury Real Estate sector, and in particular for the apartments under construction is the world’s most important cities, defined as such by virtue of their belonging to the highest positions of the classifications compiled every year by the GaWC (Globalization and World Cities Research Network) rating agency.

The works –engravings on concrete and drawings on paper – highlight the relationship between the apartments’ interiors and their views over cities such as London, New York, Tokyo, Milan, Singapore. In such relationship, the urban skyline turns into a sort of “brand” whose mere presence seems capable to considerably increase the property’s value.

The ratings compiled by the GaWC analyze the cities based on five indicators: entrepreneurial activity, human capital, exchange of information, cultural experience, political commitment. In the artworks, the diagrams are completed off by copy, juxtaposed to the stylized architectural lines, taken from the websites of real estate agencies – such as “essential elements of timeless urban aesthetic”-, or words uttered by hypothetical residents or possible buyers: “There is something missing in my life that I am not aware of”, or “As if they know the matter of my dreams”.

Through such further aspect, Promise Areas adds to the five GaWC indicators a sixth parameter, tacit yet present; a city’s capability of generating a specific imaginary about itself and of promoting, together with such imaginary, a precise lifestyle..

Discipula - Promise Areas

Curated by Francesca Lazzarini

15. 02 - 18. 04. 2020

MLZ Art Dep, Via Galatti 14 - Trieste

Timetable: Tuesday, Wednsday 10 am - 1 pm | Friday, Saturday 5 pm - 7 pm