SPACE / RETAIL / MAGIC

 

SPACE / RETAIL / MAGIC is a large scale photographic response to the changing face of retailing as it affects rural communities in the North-East of Scotland.

 

SPACE, Tesco, Inverurie, 2005
digital C-print, 200 x 400 cm, divided into four panels, edition 1 / 100 x 200 cm, edition 2 / 50 x 100 cm, edition 2

 

 

RETAIL, Superstore, Elgin, 2005
digital C-print, 200 x 400 cm, divided into four panels, edition 1 / 100 x 200 cm, edition 2 / 50 x 100 cm, edition 2

 

 

MAGIC, Market Muir, Huntly, 2005
digital C-print, 200 x 400 cm, divided into four panels, edition 1 / 100 x 200 cm, edition 2 / 50 x 100 cm, edition 2

 

 

SPACE/RETAIL/MAGIC exhibition opening: Eva Merz in front of the work ’MAGIC’. Exhibition at Hå Gamle Prestegard, Stavanger, Norway, September 2007

 

 

SPACE/RETAIL/MAGIC, specially commissioned for the RSA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2007

 

 

Eva Merz’ artwork, commissioned by Deveron Arts, depicts three sites in different stages relating to supermarket developments. Her images focus on the sustainability of large-scale retail outlets and the visual impact they have on our communities. This is not only through the buildings they create and leave behind but also the opportunities and spaces they can spoil and destroy.

SPACE shows a boarded-up Tesco supermarket in Inverurie, with graffiti and an empty car park, abandoned when Tesco built a new and much bigger outlet just across the road. The store was modern not so long ago, but in supermarket terms it’s outdated, which tells something about the speed in which the supermarkets develop.

RETAIL shows a brand-new, huge 24-hour superstore in Elgin, which replaced a smaller outlet just across the road in Elgin town centre. The parking lot is enormous; no space has been wasted for trees and flowerbeds like the old Tesco in Inverurie had.

MAGIC shows a green field, Market Muir, in Huntly, which was put up for sale for a supermarket development by Aberdeenshire Council. The local people protested against the selling of their public football and rugby field, the Council finally cancelled the project and the site remains the people’s green playing field.

The three large-scale photographic collages (200 x 400 cm) each contain around 1000 single images. With a multifarious range of perspectives the collages show the whole sites as well as revealing the smallest details, exploring the ‘spaces’ thoroughly.

As part of the project Merz published a book containing a conversation with Joanna Blythman, author of ‘SHOPPED, The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets’, focusing on issues from politics and planning permissions to independent businesses and trading competition to farmers’ and producers’ problems to food quality and the British shopping culture.

 

Funded by The Scottish Arts Council

 

Review by Ken Neil, MAP art magazine, 2005

 

DANSK

I Eva Merz’ kolosale collager danner op mod 1000 enkeltfotografier et samlet billede af bestemte steder i mindre byer i det nordøstlige Skotland.

I collageformen åbner Merz op for et mangfoldigt perspektiv på det fotograferede sted. Beskueren får dermed en mulighed for at bevæge sig rundt i sceneriet og blive fortrolig med hvert et hjørne af den skildrede lokalitet. På den måde opstår der en særegen dialog imellem på den ene side det store format, der gengiver stedet i sin helhed, og på den anden side de utallige detaljer, som tilsammen udgør helheden.

Merz’ tre værker på udstillingen, der skildrer henholdsvis et nyt og et nedlagt supermarked samt en sportsplads, er sat op i en næsten skematisk modsætning, som udstiller alternativer i udnyttelsen af byens fælles rum. Tematisk beskriver værkerne, ligesom Merz’ bøger ’Empty Shop’ (2003) og ’Country Living’ (2004), kampen om territoriet i en moderne udgave. De kapitalstærke og anonyme supermarkedskæder breder sig fra byerne ud i de små lokalsamfund på landet, hvor de fortrænger det lokale særpræg, mens det grønne fællesareal står som et billede på landsbyens gamle forankring i  det lokale fællesskab.

I Merz’ collager bliver territoriet gjort mærkbart og vedkommende som mulighed, en ramme, der står som et åbent spørgsmål og søger at engagere beskueren i brugen af det fælles rum.

af Rasmus Lanken Ottesen, redaktør, skribent

 

SPACE / RETAIL / MAGIC was shown at:

  • Galleri Birthe Laursen, Copenhagen, 2005
  • Deveron Arts / Stewarts Hall, Huntly, Scotland, 2005
  • Limousine Bull, Aberdeen, 2005
  • Danish Cultural Institute, Edinbugh, 2006
  • RSA Annual, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2006
  • Hå Gamle Prestegård, Stavanger, Norway, 2007