Bandontwerp voor: Philipp Exel, De wonderbare reis van de Phenix, 1934

Editor: So, here we have “Bandontwerp voor: Philipp Exel, De wonderbare reis van de Phenix,” made before 1934, probably a poster design. There's an airship and a parachutist, an Art Deco-ish landscape. I find it strangely optimistic for being made in that pre-war period. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a yearning for escape, and perhaps a naive belief in technological progress. It is critical to remember the context of the 1930s – the rise of fascism, the Great Depression. The airship, the parachute, these are symbols of modernity, but also of power, potential control and surveillance. Editor: Control? I hadn't considered that. It just looks like an adventure. Curator: Precisely! But consider who is taking that adventure, who has access to such technology? Whose story is being told? The stylised figures feel depersonalised. Where are the marginalized in this narrative? What socio-economic forces enabled and benefited from such idealized visions of travel and technology? It romanticizes the machine and obscures the human cost of progress. Does the 'sweet colour type' mask something sinister, a promotion of values that lead to intolerance? Editor: It’s making me rethink my initial reading of it. So, you're saying that we should question the seemingly innocent visual, because the artwork is actively engaging in propagating the values of the time? Curator: Exactly! These visual messages, the aesthetics, the utopian impulse, aren’t neutral; they reflect and often reinforce existing power structures, especially in times of great political instability. By looking at it through that lens, we can challenge that established thinking. Editor: Wow, I never thought of it that way before. I now recognise a sense of anxiety mixed with those aspirations, which feels way more complicated and revealing. Curator: Yes, unpacking those complexities allows us to understand better not only the art of the past, but also our present.