Sinai Hotels

Opening

Karin Lux, Business Manager Az W
Ulla Fischer-Westhauser, Fotomuseum Westlicht
Sabine Haubitz, Haubitz+Zoche
Stefanie Zoche, Haubitz+Zoche

The concrete skeletons of five-star hotel complexes tower up like a mirage before a backdrop of azure skies, photographed in their abandoned state by the artist duo Haubitz+Zoche between 2002 and 2005 in the desert on the Egyptian Sinai Peninsular. Their envisaged splendour is witnessed alone by their alluring names: Sultan’s Palace, Sindbad, Sunestra or the Magic Life Imperial — names that promise a combination of blissful holidays and Oriental flair.

There are many reasons why the building of the hotel resort ceased, ranging from bad investments to the embezzlement of subsidised state loans, and dwindling tourism caused by the perceived danger of terrorist attacks. Haubitz+Zoche have isolated these monuments to failed investment as architectonic sculptures depicted before the background of a mountain and desert landscape entirely void of people. The approach is as valid in documentary terms as it is conceptually, with images void of narrative associations.

CV Haubitz+Zoche

SABINE HAUBITZ
1959 born in Nördlingen
1984-86 Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin
1986-92 Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
1994/95 Lecturer, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
1988 Kodak Prize for Young Photographers
1996 Project Grant from the City of Munich

STEFANIE ZOCHE
1965 born in Munich
1986-87 Academy of Fine Arts, Perpignan
1987-90 Middlesex Polytechnic, London
1995 Project Grant, Matthias-Pschorr-Stiftung
1995-97 Scholarship, Bavarian Ministry of Culture
1998 Artist in Residence, Ateliers Duende, Rotterdam
1999-2000 Lecturer, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
the artists work together since 1998
2005 Project Grant, Kulturwerk der VG Bild-Kunst
2006 German Fotobuchpreis, Sinai Hotels

SELECTED PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
2008 Sinai Hotels, Architekturzentrum Wien
2007 Lighthouse Project, Lichtinstallation, Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Kopenhagen
above sea level, Videoinstallation, Goethe Institut Kopenhagen
2027, Videoinstallation, seven screens 02/07, Osram, München
Sinai Hotels, Goethe Institut, London; ROM, Architektur und Kunst, Oslo; Stiftelsen3,14, Bergen
2006 touch and go, photographic works and video, Walter Storms Galerie, Munich
on stage, montags bei petula, Städt. Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Musterbau, Kunstverein Aichach
Sinai Hotels, Forum 03, Fotomuseum Stadtmuseum, Munich (C)
2005 Transit, installation and video, Kunstverein Nürtingen
2004 dentro lo specchio, Studio la Città, Verona (C)
2003 Wasserspiegel und Bühnen, foundation noname, Rotterdam
2002 shift, installation, Maximiliansforum, Munich
Wasserspiegel, Walter Storms Galerie, Munich (C)
2001 Spion, site specific installation, Neue Galerie Dachau (C)
Immersion, lightboxes, Magidson Fine Art, New York
2000 Leuchtkästen, Walter Storms Galerie, München (K)
1999 Blue Boxes, Galerie Zink, Regensburg

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007 Fokus Ägypten, Kunstverein Hildesheim
Fotosommer, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Scheitern, Landesmuseum Linz
vistazo, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
2006 Gletscherdämmerung, climatic change and its consequences, art and science, Munich
sequences, real time Festival, time based art phenomena in video und music, Reykjavik, Iceland
Sinai Hotels, Foro Boario, Modena, Festival d‘Architettura di Parma, Italy
Terminals, Hotels & Wunderwelten, TU Architektur, Graz
Sinai Hotels, Foro Boario, Modena, Festival d‘Architettura di Parma, Italy
2005 Wasser, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (C)
2004 swimming pools, Kunstmuseum Heidenheim (C)
2002 The Twin Peaks Project, Eslöv, Schweden
H2O, Danese Gallery, New York; Santa Fe,Washington, Denver (C)
Aquaria, Städt. Museum Linz; Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Chemnitz (C)
2001 Nacht / Stille, Kunsthaus Essen
Under Water, Museum Bellerive, Zürich (C)
1998 Circuitos d‘água, Portugese and German Contemporary Art, Expo Lissabon (C)

PUBLIC WORKS
2005 Reflections, Bankhaus Wölbern, Hamburg
2004 Pixeltransfer, interaktive light installation, Universität für Biologie, Martinsried
2002 Luftsprung, site specific, Deka Bank, Luxemburg
Fenster mit Ausblick, site specific ready made; VorOrt, München
2001 Treppenauge, Bodenmosaik und Wandmalerei, Allianz, München
Loch, Intervention in public space, Fürstenfeldbruck (mit Empfangshalle)(K)
2000 Analog Dialog, sculpture, Microsoft, Unterschleissheim
Insight Out, installation in the church St.Lukas, Munich
1999 Gezeiten, site specific installation, Seidl 24, Munich(C)
Shifting Horizons, kinetic sculpture, Hospital of Schwabing, Munich
1998 Sleeper, photographic installation in the Maastunnel, Rotterdam (CD-Rom)
(E) – single exhibition (C) – catalogue