V1 GALLERY (NYC) PROUDLY PRESENTS
Babel Tales Redux
A solo exhibition by Peter Funch
On New York, in New York, for the first time.
V1 Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by Peter Funch (Danish, b. 1974) in New York, on view at a new temporary gallery space at 558 W 21st street & the West Side Highway.
Babel Tales Redux marks an end and a beginning. Peter Funch's 5 year long exploration of the streets of New York has reached its conclusion and the exhibition unveils the result: 40 monumental panoramic works. This is the first time the complete Babel Tales series will be shown in the city, in which the series is routed. The pictorial symphony Babel Tales forms a landmark in Peter Funch’s artistic career. The series consolidates his almost anthropological ability to create patterns in the world’s haphazardness. Simultaneously this exhibition emphasises his desire to challenge the beholder’s notion of “reality” and “fiction”.
Babel Tales focuses on human relations and interaction in a metropolis. Through repetition and juxtaposition Funch investigates human similarities and collective behavior, creating a strange, poetic and detailed picture of our presence as both individuals and communities in the public sphere. His uncanny works raise questions of reality contra fiction, and they challenge the notion of photography as being a depiction of a certain moment in time. Funch’s works are documents of moments that never existed, as they are composed of thousands of frozen moments taken over the duration of several weeks for each work. By shooting at the exact same position over a period of time, Funch is able to superimpose images, and he hereby creates a fictional work based on documentary photography. This is illustrated in the work ‘Observing Observers’, where a crowd in a street in unison orient themselves towards a certain location outside the frame of the picture. As the title of the picture implies the viewer beholds a group of observers, but it is uncertain what these observers are observing. Upon reflection one understands, however, that it is also uncertain what oneself is observing?
The title, Babel Tales, is a reference to the story of the Babel Tower, and it also pays homage to the writer Paul Auster and his New Yorker stories City of Glass and Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story.
Peter Funch, 1974, was born in a small town in a rural area of Denmark. He has lived, loved, and worked in New York City for the past 7 years. He has recently created a new commissioned series of large-scale works “Danish Diaries” for the Danish Pavilion, designed by Bjarke Ingels for EXPO 2010 in Shanghai. He was chosen to be artist of the year for Dream Amsterdam, Holland, where he created a large scale public photo installation on the Museums Plein in the heart of the city. He has won several prizes and awards for his work and the Babel Tales series have received critical acclaim around the world. He is currently exhibiting at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art outside Copenhagen, Denmark, as part of the overwhelming Living exhibition. A large part of the Babel Tales series will also be included in the upcoming and celebrated Mannheim Foto Festival in Germany.
For all press inquiries please don't hesitate to contact Natalie Bertaux: Natalie@v1gallery.com or phone 917 526 7201