Olga Lewicka - Panorama

Olga Lewicka’s >PANORAMA< presents her subjective view of the 19th century medium of the panorama. In this artist’s book, several layers of representation & examination overlap: the artist's works, her private archive, documentation on European panoramas, texts by the collaborating authors. Thwarting the book’s typical linear structure, these layers become one texture, weaving the 19th century into the present. The panoramas and their popularity throughout the 19th century – the beginning of the modern culture industry – open up a new & allegorical perspective onto contemporary visual culture and its implication within the capitalist economy. The book reflects on the dialectics of entertainment and control or political oppression. But above all the panorama is revealed as a fascinating allegory of vision's emancipatory power.