Peter Bialobrzeski

The Raw and the Cooked

Digital Pigment Print, with folder, in book Sheet size 30,00 × 40,00 cm Signed and numbered Edition of 20 + 5 AP


In his project, The Raw and the Cooked, Peter Bialobrzeski sets forth the essence of his observations from his unique series of photos about the development of Asian mega-cities (Neon Tigers, Lost in Transition) and their slums (Case Study Homes). Starting with the simplest, homemade vernacular architecture, based on human proportions and made with found construction materials, his photos range as far as the exorbitant planned cities of glass, steel, and concrete. Buildings rise higher and higher into the sky, more and more resources are wasted, the new unmercifully shoves aside the old. Seductively beautiful tableaux from fourteen different countries depict the kind of “progress” that triggers a sense of anxiety and trepidation. Where is all of this leading?
The spectacular motif selected for our Edition is a very vivid image of the encounter between two eras of time: on one side of a canal are the ruins of a small warehouse dating from colonial times, in the middle of an abandoned, overgrown industrial area. On the other side are high-rise apartment blocks, tightly packed and glistening white, with row after row of windows. Beehive-like living spaces—for worker drones?