Galerie im Taxispalais

Gregor Sailer

Closed Cities

In Closed Cities, the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, presents, for the first time, the newest photographic project by Tyrol artist Gregor Sailer. In Closed Cities, Sailer addresses the phenomenon of cities that are hermetically sealed off from the outside world – artificially created towns that are a long way from civilisation, are surrounded by a hostile natural environment or are enclosed by high fences. These may be places where natural resources are harvested; they may also be refugee camps, or so-called ‘gated communities’ for the prosperous. What all these settlements have in common is that they generally exist in extremely exposed regions and must be artificially maintained – they are located in places where a ‘natural’ city would never be found because the conditions are lacking. In addition, they are places that are inaccessible and are proscribed to non-locals and to outsiders – places that are not allowed to visit, let alone to photograph. This is also the reason why few photographs taken in a number of these cities have previously existed. The emergence of closed cities as we know them today began in the first half of the last century. The term ‘closed city’ originated in the Soviet Union, where a number of classified military cities existed during the Cold War era.

During months of research, Gregor Sailer made an extensive study of closed city constructs currently in existence and functioning. Before travelling to six of these ‘secret’ cities on three continents in order to photograph them during the period from 2010 to 2012, he had to undergo countless authorisation procedures and organisation processes in order to gain access to the cities in question. With his analogue, large-format camera, he created sober, documentary images of the diamond city of Mirny in Sibiria, the oil city of Neft Daslari in Azerbaijan, the gas city of Ras Laffan in Quatar and the copper city of Chuquicamata in Chile. In addition to these cities dedicated to the harvesting of natural resources, Sailer also photographed refugee towns in Western Sahara/Algeria and the gated community of Nordelta in Argentina. Sailer’s photographs show a wide and intriguing range of urban architecture, but they also identify the economic, political and sociological causes that have contributed to the development of these various places. His photographs – which never show people – give expression to the tristesse and to the surreal quality of these places (some of which are in a state of decay) and speak of the extreme conditions under which their people live. In Closed Cities, Gregor Sailer’s theme is the changes experienced by humanity at the outset of the 21st century. He captures the grounds of social conflict – inclusion, exclusion, power, control, security and fear, globalisation and the exploitation of resources no matter what the cost – in quiet and striking photographs.

In addition to a selection of large-format photographs, the exhibition presents documents that give an insight into the often considerable difficulty and effort involved in approaching the various sites.