How About

Art
01/08/2008 - 27/09/2008

City of Ambition is a visit to one of the largest cities in the world, Chongqing. Largely unknown in the western world, Chongqing was the capital of China in World War II, but was only granted municipal status in 1997. In his large format colour photographs, Ferit Kuyas shows the sheer dimensions of a city that is exploding in city development with the booming economy. Construction sites and thousands of cranes can be seen everywhere, becoming metaphors for the huge changes taking place in contemporary China. Kuyas focuses on the outskirts of Chongqing, where the city can’t be really seen but sensed, like a tiger moving through the jungle – invisible, yet there.

What is taking place there resembles New York in the twenties, when Manhattan was being built. The title, “City of Ambition“ is an Alfred Stieglitz quote, and has become relevant again for the situation in Chongqing. According to Kuyas, the population of approximately 32 million people are keen to show the world and the rest of China who they are, and to put Chongqing on the map.

Ferit Kuyas is a Turkish born photographer living in Switzerland. Since completing his degree at the University of Zurich in 1982, he has had a number of solo shows in Switzerland, and has featured in group shows across Europe and China. This will be his first show in London.  Free entry

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