In this, issue 88 of EXIT, we look at, as if it were a double oxymoron, the idea of the “non-place”, that terribly accurate yet unstable concept that Marc Augé used to define something that many of us could see without being able to envision its boundaries: “If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, or historical, or concerned with identity will be a non-place.”

EXIT 88 Non-Places brings together the work of ten photographers who, from different perspectives, are representative of the subject. One of the main dossiers is that of the photographer Bransilav Kropilak, in whose career there are multiple series that define the concept of “non-place”, such as Garages, Gas Pumps or Lobbies. Continuing in the world of gas stations, this time abandoned, we find the work of the Catalan photographer Xavier Aragonès. Airports, as a great non-place, whose basic function is linked to the transit of people, is widely reflected in the work of Peter Fischli and David Weiss. There is also a place for trains, especially through stations, in the work of Benjamin Price and the Polish Wojciech Karlinski. To the underground, to the subway tunnels of different cities in the world, the work of Raúl Belinchón takes us. A more conceptual or narrative dimension can be found in the works of Xavier Ribas, with his series Domingos, focused on the outskirts, and his series Thresholds on the entrance doors of different banking entities; in Lynne Cohen’s work we can find the political dimension of the non-place that is presented from neutrality; that of Lukas Korschan, with a closer approximation to the “common place”; or that of Nigel Shafran, whose stairs and supermarket tapes are also linked to questions of social class and custom.

The aforementioned dossiers are preceded by a central text that, on this occasion, is a story by the writer Jorge de Cascante, a kind of story in letter format that subtly evokes images linked to the non-place.

In Portfolio, the section in which we give space to the most interesting photographers of the new generations, we present Juan Brenner, Marcus DeSieno, Syjuco Stephanie, Andrea Torres Balaguer and Sander Vos.

Editorial

Rosa Olivares. Of places, walks, memories and ruins

Texts

Jorge de Cascante. The spiralised potato

Central theme artists

Xavier Aragonès, Raúl Belinchón, Lynne Cohen, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Wojciech Karlinski, Lukas Korschan, Branislav Kropilak, Benajmin Price, Xavier Ribas and Nigel Shafran

Portfolio artists

Juan Brenner, Marcus DeSieno, Syjuco Stephanie, Andrea Torres Balaguer and Sander Vos

DIGITAL ISSUE: