Retro-Futurism

A collection to touch on 'our perpetual nostalgia for the future' as Niklas Maak - writer and arts editor for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - aptly put it. What is it about the ’60s dream of the future - and its numerous manifestations ever since - that strikes a chord in everyone's heart? Why is retro-future still distant-utopian-future for us half a century later? One of the key locations of the movie 'Gattaca' is California's Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 'Gattaca' director Andrew M. Niccol provides us with a certain insight into retro-futurism's implications outside architectural theory: "This was Frank Lloyd Wright's last building. The great thing about the 1950s when this was built was that in this period when everyone was optimistic about the future, it was going to be wonderful. There is a triumphant, almost heroic look to the building. It's almost entirely made up of curves... To imagine this world that is so pristine, there should be no corners."