A exhibit currently at the Centre Pompidou in Paris called "Dreamlands" looks at the lasting and deep influence of themed environments and amusement parks on how we think about cities.
Aesthetica Magazine interviews curator Quentin Bajac about the exhibit:
"AM: Dreamlands explores ideas of escapism in theme parks, and in the 21st century we are now seeing unprecedented levels of escapism in the digital realm through programmes such as second life. How do you see the effects of these new developments evolving our notions of reality?
BAJAC: It is true that these new developments have had a big influence on our perception of reality and have tended to confuse the viewer. The exhibition, and I am especially thinking about one of the last room of the exhibition –the one devoted to Dubai- is also about that phenomenon; Dubai in recent years has based a lot of its communication campaigns on that impossibility of exactly knowing if the images they are proposing are real or fictitious."
FULL STORY: DREAMLANDS at the Pompidou
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