Gregor Sailer


Book Design

304 Seiten
ISBN 978-3-86828-827-8
Kehrer Verlag
DAM Architectural Book Award 2018

The Potemkin Village


The concept of the “Potemkin Village” can be traced back to Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin, a Russian field marshal and favorite of Empress Catherine the Great. Anxious to spare her the grim face of the recently an-nexed Crimea when she toured it in 1787, he allegedly ordered to create entire “villages” consisting of nothing more than gaily painted façades to be erected all along her route. The curious architectural phenomena in the haunting images shown here, Gregor Sailer’s latest project after Closed Cities, are focused on political, military, and economic features: field exercise centers in the USA and Europe, the allure of European city replicas in China, and urban vehicle testing tracks in Sweden. Not surprisingly, the country of the term’s origin, Russia, still fakes whole streets in disguise when high-ranking political celebrities are visiting from abroad. Sailer’s images provide access to the world of fakes, copies, and artificial fronts. By exposing them to the eye of the beholder, he puts the value of these often absurd aberrations of today’s society to an acid test.



AWARDS

Joseph Binder Award, Silver – 2022
Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher, Shortlist – 2022
Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher, Shortlist – 2019
DAM Architectural Book Award – 2018
Staatspreis Schönste Bücher Österreichs – 2016
Schönste Bücher Österreichs – 2015
European Design Award Silver – 2015
Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher, Shortlist – 2015
Joseph Binder Award, Auszeichnung – 2014
Photo Books Winner of the PDN Photo Annual – 2014
Out Of Box Award, nominated – 2014
Schönste Bücher Österreichs – 2013
Photo Books Winner of the PDN Photo Annual – 2013
Deutscher Fotobuchpreis, nominiert – 2013
Staatspreis Schönste Bücher Österreichs – 2012
European Design Award Silver – 2010
red dot design award – 2010
Kulturplakatpreis der Stadt Wien – 2010
red dot design award – 2009
Staatspreis Schönste Bücher Österreichs – 2008