Grand Tour: A Journey Through Europe

The Grand Tour is considered to be the origin of tourism, and since the Renaissance it has taken young noblemen around Europe: an educational journey! Today, when photographer and conceptual artist Merlin Bauer presents a series of works under this title, he takes a sober look at our European cities and landscapes. What state have we brought them to? What is the relationship between what is being added and what is already there?

Bauer‘s works examine these settlements: Fences, billboards and skyscrapers, asphalt roads, box-shaped residential mountains like standardised caves, extended building cubatures and artificial rocks. They also explore the boundaries between order and uncontrolled growth, their structures and surfaces. They stimulate curiosity and demand exploration, in the tradition of the Grand Tour.

Dr. Jörg Biesler (Deutschlandfunk / WDR)