Wild River, Florida, 2005
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Horizon #1, Tropical Islands, Berlin, Germany, 2007
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Window of the World Theme Park, Shenzhen, China, 2008
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Wintery Beach, Florida, 2005
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Minsk World Military Theme Park, Shenzhen, China, 2008
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Titanic Resort Hotel, Antalya, Turkey, 2006
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Superman above Red Square, Antalya, Turkey, 2006
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
The Talk, Ski Dubai Indoor, Dubai, 2006
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Ice Cave, Indoor Ski Center, Dubai, 2006
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Minsk World Military Theme Park, Shenzhen, China, 2008
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Cage, Centerparcs, Bispingen, Germany, 2007
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Capitol, Window of the World, Shenzhen, China, 2008
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Astronaut, Topkapi Place Hotel, Antalya, Turkey, 2006
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
Insect Screen, Titanic Resort, Antalya, Turkey, 2006
C-Print
25.5 x 31.5 in. | 39 x 47 in.
Ed. of 5
The series Fake Holidays by Reiner Riedler will be on view at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery from October 7th through November 20th, 2010. This is Reiner’s first solo exhibition in New York. There will be an opening reception on October 7th from 6-9pm at the gallery.
Reiner Riedler’s Fake Holidays takes us to the heart of a society of standardized leisure where foreign places are fabricated into local spaces in which we can stage our own life histories. Replicas of the greatest touristic landscapes in the world discard space, time and reality, arousing a sense of adventure and a taste for the exotic without the journey or the risk. As Jens Lindworsky mentions in Reiner Riedler’s "Fake Holidays" book, "Florida’s Disneyworld hosts more visitors than Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Israel combined. New and more refined illusionary worlds are added every year, and the simulation business is booming.”
Whether in China, Germany or in the United States, Riedler shows a dramatization of these spaces, towns and lives. A honeymoon in Paris is now possible when staying in China; experiencing the unique charm of an island vacation is even more perfect just a few kilometers from Berlin. These lives dreamt in prefabricated spaces enhance the illusion that everything is possible and we can evade ourselves without even leaving.
Riedler’s work was recently selected to be part of the exhibition "Dreamlands–From Amusement Parks to Cities of Tomorrow" at Centre Pompidou in Paris in summer 2010. Quentin Bajac, the curator, writes: "Reliant on generalized imitation and illusion, displaying an aesthetics of accumulation and collage, and testifying to a desire to abolish the constraints of space and time, such "Dreamlands" have helped form the artistic, architectural and urbanistic imagination of the 20th and 21st centuries. From the utopian projects of the 1960s and ‘70s to the realities of contemporary urban design, they have changed our most basic relationships to the world and time, to geography and history; they have altered our understanding of the original and the reproduction and have blurred the boundaries between art and its old rivals of kitsch and entertainment."
As a documentary photographer Reiner Riedler deals with important topics of the present day. His most recent project (begun in 2004) is dedicated to the topic of simulation; Fake Holidays has now been shown in many places including Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt, at the European Month of Photography exhibitions in Paris and Bratislava, and at Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan. Born in Austria in 1968, Reiner Riedler went to Vienna in 1989 with the intention of studying ethnology. Instead, he attended a college for photography and decided to dedicate himself solely to the craft. Since then, his pictures have been published in magazines such as National Geographic, Stern, The New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, and Le Monde 2.
