Metropolis

Like the protagonist of Chekhov's short story (My Life), the protagonist of the film Metropolis also escapes the constraints of caste and immerses himself in the world of workers.

Human hypogeum, inhuman apogee: bowels of the earth populated by workers, skyscrapers inhabited by cold despots.
We are in 2026, a future that back then was a century away and is now just around the corner.
The cards of time are shuffled, depending on who holds the bank.

The female robot that appears in the film (and on the B114) assumes the guise of a flesh-and-blood person to manipulate the crowd.
Like an avatar of the digital era, like a fake profile.

The inspiration source for the dystopian nightmare was the New York skyline in the 1920s.
Fascinating and eerie skyscrapers.
Chrysler Building, Empire State Building...
The '29 crash is on its way.

The fourteen studs, replacing the sharp nails, can be a message of danger, but also a nod to Man Ray and his famous iron "Cadeau", according to a disruptive and ironic vision of Dada art in antithesis with rigorous Bauhaus functionalism.

The clock, a chronological element that frequently recurs in the six completed works, is the one from Modern Times.
The worker played by Chaplin is so alienated by mechanical labor that he sees bolts in the buttons of the secretary's skirt.

Personal and epochal Great Depression.
The B114 becomes the machine to feed workers during their lunch break without them stopping production.

The paint background is in mother-of-pearl.
A reflection of cinematic light on the black and white of history.

Technique: Mother-of-pearl powder, hematite, opaque colors, newspaper clippings, Swarovski studs.