NEW YORK.-French Institute Alliance Francaise in New York City presents Andrea Robbins and Max Becher - Location Dislocation: Identity in a Global World, curated by the Artists – and with the artists, on view through June 23, 2007.

Andrea Robbins and Max Becher have traveled the world documenting what they term “the transportation of place,” incongruous instances of cultural appropriation and relocation. This exhibition of seemingly surreal and keenly observational photography features twenty-four works from three series: “ America in France : Strip Malls of Toulouse ,” “Bavarian by Law,” and “German Indians.”

The primary focus of our work is what we call the transportation of place—situations in which one limited or isolated place strongly resembles another distant one. Traditional notions of place, in which culture and geographic location neatly coincide, are being challenged by legacies of slavery, colonialism, holocaust, immigration, tourism, and mass-communication. Whether the subject is Germany in Africa, Germans dressing as Native Americans, American towns dressed as Germany , New York in Las Vegas , New York in Cuba , or Cuba in exile, our interest tends to be a place out of place with its various causes and consequences.” —Robbins and Becher

Their photographs explore issues of authenticity in the face of changing locations, heritage, and history. Critic Benjamin H. D. Buchloh has written that Robbins and Becher “actually succeed in reintroducing historical subjects into their photographic investigations without even approaching the threat of anecdote.”

Robbins and Becher, who are married collaborators, currently teach at the University of Florida , and previously taught at Cooper Union and Rutgers University . They are represented in several major collections including the Guggenheim Museum , the Whitney Museum , the International Center for Photography, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago . Aperture published a book of their photos, Transportation of Place, last year.