Once again the gallery Bildhalle is hosted at the Forum Paracelsus in St. Moritz this year and presents a group exhibition of important positions in classic and contemporary Swiss photography on the topic of “Winter”.
Winter as a photographic subject has a long tradition in Switzerland. Snow and cold almost completely transform a landscape, concealing many of its characteristics and often reducing them to contrasts, planes and textures. Winter thus invites us to look at a place in a new and different way, to surrender ourselves to the play of light on this blank canvas and to trace the fresh traces. Many artists and photographers feel inspired by this side of winter.
A highlight of the exhibition are the vintage prints by Albert Steiner (1877-1965) from the Kaspar Fleischmann Collection, never shown publicly before and unmatched in their quality and uniqueness. Steiner is followed chronologically by winter pictures of important exponents of Swiss photography: Werner Bischof (1916-1954), René Burri (1933-2014), Arnold Odermatt (*1925), René Groebli (*1927) and Philipp Giegel (1927-1997) and the Swiss-French photographer Sabine Weiss (*1924), who lives in Paris.
These icons of Swiss photography are juxtaposed with more recent positions: for example, Douglas Mandry’s unique photographic specimens (photographic lithographs on a glacier cloth) or Sandro Diener’s landscapes (*1975).
The exhibition is rounded off with photographs by established Swiss photographers: Robert Bösch (*1954), Guido Baselgia (*1953), Daniel Schwartz (*1955) and Bernd Nicolaisen (*1959). They all know how to translate the breathtaking beauty and existential boundaries of alpine regions into exceptional photographs.
Winter in Swiss Photography
2 February – 21 February 2019
BILDHALLE
Stauffacherquai 56
8004 Zürich
www.bildhalle.ch
Werner Bischof, Girls, St. Moritz, Schweiz, 1948, Baryta Print, 40 x 40 cm, Open Edition (©Werner Bischof Estate/Magnum Photos)
Philipp Giegel, Pferderennen auf dem zugefrorenen Obersee, Arosa, Schweiz, 1955 Silver Gelatin Print, 49 x 59 cm, Only one print available © Philipp Giegel, Esther Woerdehoff Paris
Philipp Giegel, Training vor dem Schlittenhunderennen im Engadin, Celerina, 1978 Silver Gelatin Print, 30 x 30 cm, Only one print available © Philipp Giegel, Esther Woerdehoff Paris
Albert Steiner, Winterlandschaft bei Samedan, Silver Gelatine Print © Bruno Bischofberger, Meilen-Zü̈rich
Sandro Diener, Winterwald, Schweiz, 2010, Archival Pigment Print, 90 x 100 cm, Edition 3 & 1 AP
