Cold Play – Set 1 from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur

The opening of the new premises on 14 November 2003 will provide Fotomuseum Winterthur with its first opportunity of showing its collection in dialogic presentations. Whereas up till now the works of Fotomuseum’s own collection have only been shown twice in exhibitions, parts of the collection will now be shown in annually changing exhibitions. The newly acquired premises will make it possible to present the theme of “Collecting Photography” to the public on a long-term basis, and the collection of the Fotomuseum Winterthur will represent an important part of the museum’s activities.

Cold Play illustrates the way in which photography alternates between the document and the pictorial image. Over the past twenty years, photography has developed into a leading medium of artistic production based on the paradoxical dovetailing of realistic depiction on the one hand and the use of theatrical and scenographic means on the other. Starting with the pronouncedly photographic work of the 1960s, 70s and 80s with photographs by Lewis Baltz, Larry Clark and Hans Danuser, the range of Cold Play extends as far as contemporary work that highlights the disquieting, almost cynical state of our society in photographs of public and private life, politics, the economy and science. The exhibition invites discussion of these values and draws attention to the inherent ability of photography to formulate inner and outer states in ways that are narrative and reflective, reserved and gripping at one and the same time.

Cold Play combines single pictures and groups by the following photographers: Lewis Baltz, Vanessa Beecroft, Daniele Buetti, Larry Clark, Clegg & Guttmann, Hans Danuser, Katrin Freisager, Paul Graham, Annika von Hausswolff, Lisa May Post, Thomas Ruff and others.

The exhibition was curated by Thomas Seelig and Urs Stahel.