Ben G. Fodor: I.V.N. (Incipit Vita Nova)

Wooden maquettes, drawings on plaster fragments, C-prints on Dibond

I.V.N. is a long-term project created between 1999 and 2013. This group of works consists of photographic works, semi-fictional architectural models and drawings on chipped fragments of plaster that resemble archaeological finds.

The project represents a large-scale artistic research into the role of utopias in the past and future, "an archaeology of space and power. Fodor's interest in architecture is not just architectural, but conceptual and political" (Sylvère Lotringer). With I.V.N. "Fodor’s work can be seen as part of an international genealogy of important artists who have dealt with motifs relating to the interplay of ideology, architecture and submerged utopias. What is important is that, for the first time, cross-connections within this spectrum are sought". (Georg Schöllhammer). Namely, cross-connections between architectural traces of real socialism as well as fascism and National Socialism. "This politically grounded research, however, does not forget to include the architectural emblems of the current sovereign, i.e. capital, in this comparison" (Peter Kunitzky, critic for taz, springerin and many more, in eikon).

„The real buildings on which the semi-fictional wooden models are based visualise constructs of ideas and ideologies. I derive the models from these constructs“ (Fodor).

The three wooden boxes in the cycle - Pater Noster Square, Hiroshima and Tempelhof - oscillate between aerial images of real places and abstract graphics. Pater noster square quotes the square in front of the London Stock Exchange with its characteristic floor pattern. Fodor replaces the statue vis à vis the stock exchange with a roulette figure.

Exhibitions of the project a.o.: Kunstsammlung Jena (large museum show); Kepes Centre Eger; The Barn Oxford in cooperation with ZKM Karlsruhe.

In 2014, Kerber (Bielefeld / Berlin) published a 220-page artist's book with texts / conversations with the artists by Sylvère Lotringer and Georg Schöllhammer.