Sarah Van Marcke

In her photographic work Sarah Van Marcke researches the position of the human body in the constructed landscape. Being transformed into photographic images and serving as backdrops, the existing urban or architectural sites seems to have lost both reality and functionality. The chosen urban sites are often the result of visionary or sometimes even utopian ideas. In her work, Sarah confronts her own body to the constructed landscape and questions the way we move in this space. At once behind and in front of the camera, Sarah is the "anti-subject" of the image; her abandoned body is mainly used as an object that adapts to its environment by imitating form, colour, shape or function. the actions are exaggerated in order to show the eldritch and eerie relationship with contemporary form of space. Beneath the surface the photographs question the utopian motivation of architects and planners. The images are showing the beauty of the architecture, the character is being used to create a balance or to subvert the balance in the image. In a sometimes humorous way they still flirt with the shapes of the space. But there is always a glimpse of melancholy and tristesse, in order to give an account on the dark side of reality behind these visionary constructions (like unsettling living conditions, corrosion, decay and disintegration) and putting them in a historical perspective.