Private Views by Andi Schmied

A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan

Above all, it is the „Spurensuche“ (the search for traces) of an artist. It gives insight into the practice of reading the traces of a society and its relationship to aesthetics, the behavior of man in urban space. 
Andi Schmied has carried out an impressive field research, taking behavioral samples of the residents above the clouds, so to speak. It is the method of an artist: meticulously precise investigations combined with a passionate inclination to experiment, to surprise. 

It represents a moral image of the almost magnetic attraction of special metropolises, but at the same time it makes clear the inaccessibility. The inaccessibility for almost everyone. This special flair, this uplifting feeling, to experience or even to live out the freedom above the clouds is reserved for only a few. 
What does this kind of static and almost immovable system, this kind of relationship - human / aesthetic-intelligence / environment - mean for the urban future development of a metropolis?

„Private View“ has become an extraordinary publication. A book whose precise, multi-layered content and an unconventional, convincing design ⎯ surprises. It is not an "art book“, but a book that is flooded with a special spirit of art and knowledge of architecture. (pn)

 

All of us want to see Manhattan from above, but very few can do it from their own living room. Private Views is here to satisfy our incessant curiosity about a hidden elite world that we can only observe from outside, or occasionally, from an overpriced viewing point crowded with tourists.

While posing as an apartment-hunting Hungarian billionaire, Andi Schmied accessed and documented Manhattan’s most exclusive high-rise properties. For the duration of the project, she inhabited a fictional persona: Gabriella, a mother of one whose husband is an antique dealer. Dressing as Gabriella and acting as Gabriella, she prepared for the family’s upcoming move to Manhattan by searching through listings of premium real estate agencies and requesting to view some of their most splendid properties. The book guides its readers through the sunset from Trump World Tower and dawn over Central Park from the private ballroom of the tallest residential tower on Earth, showcasing samples of the world’s most luxurious materials, such as the Calacatta Tucci marble used in bathrooms overlooking the Empire State Building.

With contributions by Sara Emilia Bernat, f-architecture, Irena Lehkoživová, Ava Lynam, Peter Noever, Andi Schmied, Jack Self, Michael Sorkin, Samuel Stein, Barbora Špičáková, Anthony Vidler and Sharon Zukin

Editors: Irena Lehkoživová, Barbora Špičáková.

Published by VIPER Gallery, Prague.Size: 31,5 x 23,5 cm228 pages, 140 color and 25 b/w illustrations
ISBN 978-80-270-8358-9

Buy the book here: http://andischmied.com/private-views.html