Archive Utopia: Project Brasilia by Lina Kim and Michael Wesely

Brasi´lia, the capital of Brazil, formally dedicated in 1960, seems more like an architectural myth, a fiction, than a real place. Between the years 2003 and 2009, the Brazilian-Ko- rean artist Lina Kim and the German artist Michael Wesely embarked on a journey into the present-day reality and the archives of this city. One result of their artistic hunt for clues is the »Arquivo Brasi´lia«, a collection of historical photo ma- terial on how Brasi´lia came to be.

While conducting their research, Kim and Wesely also pho- tographed themselves in Brasi´lia – choosing their backdrops in part as a result of their archival studies. The time-exposure photographs exaggerate the city’s utopian character even further with their diffuse light, providing some unusual per- spectives on this unique place.

The book presents a unique juxtaposition of historic photo- graphs, many of them published for the first time, and new photographic works.