Arnold Odermatt – Collisions

The police photographer Arnold Odermat accepted his assignment to photograph accidents with great meticulousness and a pronounced feeling for what makes a good picture. His Collisions are characterised by two types of photographs: landscape photographs and photographed sculptures. The Swiss landscape with its fields, trees and lakes has an almost “Sundayish” appearance and plays an involuntary role as a stage for curious, incongruous scenes. A usually gentle, slightly sleepy landscape has been invaded at a specific place – bang, two vehicles are wedged together –, or covered by a strange scratch with an end to it, a car that has come to an abrupt stop at a tree or a wall or crashed through a barrier and landed in the lake. The scene of an accident in the midst of an ordered pattern. An accident of order, cleaned up and “more or less” in order once again. The second type of photograph is much narrower and more sculptural, focusing on the vehicles with close-ups of cars locked together, torn wings, smashed bonnets and shattered windscreens. Sort of “involuntary sculptures”, created through Arnold Odermatt’s objective, sober and precise photographs.

The exhibition was curated by Urs Stahel.