Galerie Stefan Röpke

Sun City focuses attention on the town of Benidorm, Spain. Out of all the transformations that the package holiday industry has made to the Mediterranean over the past 50 years, Benidorm must represent the greatest shift: from sleepy fishing village to mini-Manhattan. It is this extraordinary transformation that forms the basis for Carter’s stop-motion video, though the premise for this growth is dramatically warped. Sheltered by the mighty Puig Campana Mountain, Benidorm benefits from an extraordinary sun-rich microclimate. The premise and fantasy described is that the sun, not mankind, is responsible for the growth of this metropolis. Through photographic reconstruction and collage of imagery of both past and present, the video suggests that man has been worshiping the sun here for thousands of years and through stop-motion animation it describes the growth of the buildings as if they evolved like plants, grown by the sun itself. Finally this living town is transformed into something far more valuable than a tourist destination: a machine for harnessing the sun –the ultimate solar power station, where energy value trumps that of beauty or pleasure.