From the author:
World records, heroic stories, tears of the losers. The Olympics are the most important international sporting event when, for two weeks, one city is watched by the world.
Universal enthusiasm and a global media presence politicise the games and provide an opportunity for massive investment. Stadiums become symbols of power.
Days of euphoria are followed by disillusionment. Olympic Realities takes the viewer to six places deserted by the Olympic circus.
Bruno Helbling’s architecture photography raises questions of the significance of these monstrous events.
The impressive pictures are accompanied by six controversial essays, each written by an author with a special connection to the particular Olympic city.
Simultaneously provocative and entertaining, they expose the roots of a system of megalomania, corruption and mismanagement.
Olympic Realities is not only a highly aesthetic record of endurance, but also a sharp portrayal of an inescapable recurrence.
Hardback, 206 pages, English & German, 164 color-photographs
Photography by Bruno Helbling Essays by Werner van Gent, Peter Dittmann, Ahmed Buric,
Francesco Pastorelli, Barbara Lüthi and Martin Müller.
Graphic-Design by Lars Egert
Birkhäuser 2015
ISBN 978-3-0356-0631-7
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