Overview

Inspired by the apparent social and architectural disparity between Paris’ most frequented tourist sites and the city’s outermost suburbs, Adam Geczy’s Beautiful Cities presents an array of imagery rarely associated with iconic global cities, at least not in the manner they are outwardly represented as tourist destinations. Geczy presents fractured views of five cities – Paris, Sydney, Bruges, Kyoto and San Francisco – to highlight the everyday bustle and banality of street life through rather mundane urban regions and ugly outer suburbs.

Produced over six years, this suite of five video works is complemented by a series of classic low-fi vinyl records emitting the cacophony of the five metropolises. These are situated amidst a huge two-wall graffito of the so-called ‘Top City Tourist Hits’ executed by Sydney street artist Mistery. The oversized record labels feature collaged touristic clichés, and as they spin viewers are invited to download the city noises from a USB port.

Examining urban sprawl and overpopulation through the frame of tourism and beauty, Beautiful Cities immerses the viewer in the random, hectic, directionless urban bustle, the chaos of overpopulation, and the din of globalization.