Mischa Leinkauf
Endogenous Error Terms, 2019
24 photographs, 50 x 50cm
For centuries people have been trying to tame rivers and tides by drilling the subsoil beyond the ground on which we live. These architectural remains, hostile to humans and most animals, form a kind of invisible road system directly under the ground of our cities. Under the strong influence of the brutal effects of the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, there was an existential collective need for security in Japan. By definition, a shelter is a basic architectural structure that provides protection from local environment. Having a place of refuge, safety and retreat is generally regarded as a basic physiological human need, which is the basis for the development of higher human motivations. From this origin Leinkauf began an intensive exploration of lifeless architectural structures that lie underground. Possible spaces of security? His constant search for the invisible allowed him to find some of the most hidden places in Tokyo, even almost below the Shibuya crossing. The spaces became an obsession. While he stayed in these upside down areas of the city, Leinkauf’s perspective changed from exo- to endogenous. A process that originate from within an organism or a cell. The womb of the city. From Tokyo, the work emigrated to Russia, Mongolia, Athens, Vienna, Florence and Munich, among other places.
24 photographs, 50 x 50cm
For centuries people have been trying to tame rivers and tides by drilling the subsoil beyond the ground on which we live. These architectural remains, hostile to humans and most animals, form a kind of invisible road system directly under the ground of our cities. Under the strong influence of the brutal effects of the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, there was an existential collective need for security in Japan. By definition, a shelter is a basic architectural structure that provides protection from local environment. Having a place of refuge, safety and retreat is generally regarded as a basic physiological human need, which is the basis for the development of higher human motivations. From this origin Leinkauf began an intensive exploration of lifeless architectural structures that lie underground. Possible spaces of security? His constant search for the invisible allowed him to find some of the most hidden places in Tokyo, even almost below the Shibuya crossing. The spaces became an obsession. While he stayed in these upside down areas of the city, Leinkauf’s perspective changed from exo- to endogenous. A process that originate from within an organism or a cell. The womb of the city. From Tokyo, the work emigrated to Russia, Mongolia, Athens, Vienna, Florence and Munich, among other places.