André Mailänder’s photographs form part of a documentary research project on the transformation of the Kirchberg Plateau, Luxembourg City’s European, economic and cultural hub.
In 2006, a call for applications was issued by the Fonds d'Urbanisation et d'Aménagement du Plateau de Kirchberg (Fund for the Urbanisation and Development of the Kirchberg Plateau) in collaboration with the National Audiovisual Centre in Dudelange.
Three photographers were assigned the mission of visually documenting and personally interpreting the continuous architectural changes unfolding on Kirchberg. André Mailänder was one of the chosen photographers and his work was exhibited in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.
André Mailänder’s six images engage the observer in a specific dialogue by transposing the metropolitan site of Kirchberg into the tranquillity of the local Ardennes region. It is difficult to categorise Mailänder’s works. This is not architectural photography in the classical sense of the word: the images are not exclusively dominated by geometrical structures, nor are they devoid of all human presence. They suggest much more than just a simple documentation of an urban region undergoing progressive transformation. They reveal an analytical vision of a complex terrain, marked by the rhythm of a modern and polyvalent society. The contemporary buildings emerge either in a landscape of fog, creating a mystical atmosphere, or else behind a green hilltop. In another composition, the architectural structures appear overwhelming in their size, overstepping the frame of the image, while the next photograph depicts them as small and unimposing when faced with the infinite sky.
André Mailänder lives and works in Saarbrücken.
© CDI