Elian Somers
archieven - artistiek onderzoek - fotografie - video - installatie
With a background in photography and architecture, Elian Somers investigates the urban utopian landscape, in particular the interplay between architecture and urbanism, ideologies and (geo)politics.
Since 2007 she has been working on long-term projects, such as A Stone from the Moon (2015-2022), One and Another State of Yellow (2013-2017), Border Theories (2009-2013), California City (2010-2012) and Droom als er ooit een was (2006-2008). In these projects she is in search of constructed realities and truths, hidden and virtual histories, and the utopian experiment. Multiple realities, histories and truths intermingle in her works.
The works can be perceived as critical tools for understanding and figuring out the present and the future. Through the combination of photography, cartography and archival materials - from documented and accepted knowledge sources to their undocumented, ungraspable and controversial counterparts - alternative and unexpected perspectives on reality, truth and history are brought to light and generated.