BUSINESS TOURIST - Limited Edition of 5 Photograph

Erik Bont is an emerging artist based in Austria. His main used medium is digital photography - mostly medium format. After business school, Erik worked in a bank job where – surprise - money was the predominating topic. Being part of this capitalistic environment made him aware of the consequences this system brings about and how it affects him and the world around him. That’s when he started to question this superficially “perfect” system. Erik soon realized that life depicted by the media is often far from reality and strongly feels the need to show these imperfections. The inhumanity of politics and how we ended up depending on money to experience emotions are topics that flow into his work. His motto: if the “real” world takes away emotions, I want to give them back to the people! By channeling the energy of his dreams, collecting and putting together fantasies and emotions to create his own world, he aims to illustrate that emotions are much more powerful than pieces of paper - in form of money. In his work he tries to represent people as human beings, not as marionettes of business. Therefore, his work moves into two directions – on one side he depicts humans and interprets people and portrait photography in an artificial and often conceptual way, on the other side he is fascinated by the mark humans are going to leave behind in this world and wants to portray this in a documentary way. Doesn’t matter which direction Erik chooses, his main aim is to seduce the observer and make people feel the emotions that drove him to do his work. He loves to shock, fascinate and amaze – polarizing with his work is his mindset. 'Emotions should dominate the new world order.' (Erik Bont, starting his work in 2005) "Business tourist" - photographed digital, color in Bern, Switzerland was a collaboration between erik bont and famous model and DJ Jesus Luz. The work is one portrayal of Erik's series "superhumans in superworlds". The „superhumans in superworlds“-series, is a progressive series - photographed in Erik's typical conceptual way he is known for, which already started back in 2005 and continues to this day. The series focuses on the emotional side of humans and this side being in continuous conflict with our rational mind. Although humans nowadays are more and more forced to adapt to the rules and standards of society which is trying to mould people into a “homogeneous functioning mass”, at the same time it shows how the human as an individual starts to break with these rules and gains independence using individual thinking and pursuing different ways of living. The ability to focus on our own process of individualization as the primary activity in our life is rare, not least because we have to make ends meet and feed ourselves and loved ones. Therefore this process mostly converts into a “secondary activity” and is often something we do beside our day job. Due to this fact, more and more individualists are created. People who work in their day jobs, but focus their mind on activities which strongly extravert the yearning and desire of them as an individual. At the same time, the importance of a primary activity (job) and therefore the importance of creating an existential (financial) basis are more and more fading into the background. This is a paradox as our main activity usually helps to create an existential basis (money, food, etc.), whereas the secondary activity is used to fulfill ourselves on an existential, emotional level. This shift also shows that fulfillment on an emotional level is more important than securing an existential basis, although this – on a rational level – is essential to survive and should therefore come first. This is a fascinating when you consider that only the human being enjoys the ability to decide between self fulfillment and existential requirements and being aware of this at the same time. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about the strong mother, who works in the model business, or nowadays youth, who work to fulfill their emotional dreams, e.g. their wedding. Every human has an emotional side, which drives and motivates them multiple times more than the pure rational side – even if this side is hidden, dormant in the dark and cannot be seen from the outside. The series induces a feeling of affirmation that the individualization of the self is not only an option but a necessity created from human evolution. At the same time, it raises the question: To what extent does this desire of individualization differs from simply being greedy? Is this individualization not actually a form of greed which focuses on the individual, something we humans permanently experience? Is the wish of an own positive emotionality too strong and does it possibly come at the expense of our fellow human beings? Is the striving for individuality even an important part of human evolution or is it the apple in Adam’s and Eve’s paradise? Limited Edition of 5 + open edition prints. All limited editions signed and numbered by Erik Bont. Printed as real photo print on Alu-Dibond ultraHD-finish (gallery quality). ** For every limited edition print sale, erik makes a donation to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR! **

Photography:Digital on Aluminium

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:5

Size:35.4 W x 23.6 H x 0.4 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.