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Rangsdorf Airfield, Berlin

Artist: Cardosi, Mathieu · b. 2001

Rangsdorf Airfield, Berlin

Cardosi was the recipient of the RSA David Michie Travel Award in 2023 and used his award to travel to abandoned sites in Berlin, Germany. One of…

Cardosi was the recipient of the RSA David Michie Travel Award in 2023 and used his award to travel to abandoned sites in Berlin, Germany.

One of these was this former airport in Berlin which spent most of its life under Soviet military control until its closure in 1994.

The present work depicts the decayed interior of one of the old hangars which was built adjacent to the airport's main control tower most of the roof structure has fallen through leaving only the metal roof trusses and the high level glazing is badly broken. The hangar has been nick-named the green hangar on account of the amount of plant-life that has now taken root within the space.

Incorporated into the painting, in a new development for the artist, is an element of collage. More specifically he has incorporated a fragment of an old Soviet newspaper dated 1988 which he found among the detritus on the hangar floor.

The two figures in the painting were friends who accompanied Cardosi on his visit. They were included, he said, to provide a sense of scale and to provide a sense of questioning in the mind of the viewer.

In a further reference to the Soviet era, Cardosi has also included the image of two Russian ballet dancers into the background right.

Cardosi used the Travel Award to develop an interest in abandoned buildings which had begun whilst a student, but has recognised that it has helped move him from a sense of spookiness in such environments to a greater wish to understand the historic background and relevance of the sites he visits.

Some of this he channels into creative writing as a further accompaniment to his paintings in terms of his overall response.