Where the Past has No Future

Life in Asian metropolises – Singapore and currently in Hong Kong – feels like being in the future I imagined in my childhood: Technical conveniences like automated border control, contactless payments, driverless trains, a nearly frictionless organisation to facilitate daily life fulfil the promises of past visions. Accordingly, the urban structures of huge housing blocks, stacked train-tracks on several levels, intertwined with footbridges and motorways, provide an impression of how the future was anticipated to appear in the last century. This future, which was pledged to me in the canon of the Western cinematic mythology, looks and feels exactly like many of those Science-Fiction-movies rolled into one, like »Star Wars«, »Blade Runner«, »2001« and »Matrix« simultaneously, and filled me with both amazement and fear. As there is no room for old or rotten parts in the world of tomorrow, buildings or details of the urban landscape started to disappear, while they were at some point ahead of their time – or still carry the aesthetics of some futuristic vision from the last century. Specifically, with the recent demolishment of Singaporean 1970s landmarks and the breath-taking speed at which the topography in Hong Kong is constantly changing, I anticipate most of the architectural idiosyncrasies of the »Tropical Brutalism« to be gone soon – the style that defined a cultural awakening remains only as a part of our imagination. Through this artistic investigation in progress, I explore numerous details which convey the sensation of retro futuristic architecture. Based on an extensive collection of photographs, taken over the last seven years in Singapore and in Hong Kong, a topology of colours and forms is examined, serving as foundation for an analysis in aesthetic and style.