Sinai Hotels

Haubitz + Zoche
January 12th – February 11th, 2007

The exhibition at ROM consists of 16 photographs from the SINAI HOTELS series, produced between 2001 and 2004. The images depict abandoned concrete skeletons of hotel projects on the Egyptian Sinai coast.

Sinai Hotels (2007), Haubitz+Zoche. Photo: ROM

A frenzied construction boom with numerous hotel projects was initiated when the Sinai Peninsula was opened to tourism over 15 years ago. Many of these projects are now permanently halted or indefinitely suspended due to a combination of economic and security issues.

Haubitz and Zoche have managed to preserve and convey the atmosphere surrounding these empty architectural skeletons. The architecture, an uncritical blend inspired by all cultures and drawn from all periods in architectural history, most resembles monuments to an extinct civilization. The desert's sand and stone against the deep blue sky create a constant contrast in the images that embrace and highlight the absurd atmosphere surrounding these "sculptures."

The artists simultaneously maintain their objectivity and distance from the subject, thereby creating a documentary photo series consisting of balanced individual artworks.