Florian Pumhösl combines his artistic praxis with his analytical interest in thematic complexes such as modern architecture, design, exhibition displays, urbanism and colonialism. His projects are interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional; the model of the discursive/spatial/media interconnections always manifests itself, however, in perfect formal and aesthetic solutions.

In Lac Mantasoa, he engaged with the destructive connections between modern industrial architecture and colonial history. In the 19th century, the French industrialist Jean-Baptiste Laborde planned to build an industrial complex along European lines in Madagascar – in Mantasoa near to the capital of Antananarivo. The project failed, the buildings were destroyed and its history was interpreted according to vested interests – French colonial or Madagascan nationalist. In the 1930’s, the ruins sank under a newly created reservoir. Pumhösl made underwater shots of the industrial city and its remains on the lake edge, and revealed the traces of the destructive power of modernity in bewitching pictures that have almost natural science interest.

Brigitte Huck, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)