Photography by Wolfgang Thaler and Wolfgang Obermair

Moscow, you are not our Capital, 2010

“Where do we go from here?”
July 2 – August 29, 2010
Secession, Vienna

Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair and Belinda Kazeem
September 23‒27, 2015
Friedl Kubelka Fotoschule at the Parallel Vienna, Alte Post, Vienna

Katalin Timár, Catalogue of the exhibition “Where do we go from here?”, Secession, Vienna (unpublished), Summer 2010
“Moscow, you are not our Capital” epitomizes Shapiro-Obermair's interests in working with various layers and aspects of cultural history. The work is underwritten with her private micro-history since it contains photographic representations of certain emblematic locations in her geographical trajectory. This endeavour is translated into an aesthetic experience by Shapiro-Obermair's juxtaposition and variation of recurring elements, such as snapshots of seemingly ordinary urban locations (from Nuremberg and Berlin) with photographs of modernist-minimalistic objects, and hand-made drawings of repetitive, geometrical forms, looking like computer-generated prints. All these elements are carefully arranged and staged for the spectators who are invited by Shapiro-Obermair to establish their own relationship to her objects and to the ideas they are meant to evoke; some of which – as the title suggests – refer to the personal consequences of geographical dislocation that is, in the case of the artist, is devoid of any sentimental nostalgia. 
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Installation consisting of four objects
Wood, glass, metal, ink-jet print, gouache, cardboard
Max. size 95 × 70 × 7,5 cm