Research and Invention – Investigations with Images in Contemporary Photography

Throughout its history, photography has always evidenced points of contact with other disciplines, from science to popular culture. Increasingly, in recent years, artists and photographers have been exploring this wide field of ideas for their photographic practice and examining their surroundings and the world with an analytical approach verging on the scientific. Perhaps the best known example of this from an earlier era is Karl Blossfeldt’s portfolio of Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature), first published around 1930. Originally intended as a photographic teaching aid for students of botanical anatomy, the series is distinguished by its aesthetic and formal rigor.

On the track of a scientific approach, the search for a theme, the pursuit of a trail, the exploration and discovery of form, but liberated from the gesture of objectivity, artists today are approaching these visual and research areas, sometimes with great earnest, sometimes with humor and irony, and often with the aim of questioning the criteria of the search for truth and social models. With works by Pierre Bismuth (F), Kristleifur Björnsson (IS), Sanna Kannisto (FIN), Joachim Koester (DK), Jochen Lempert (D), Walid Raad / The Atlas Group (LIB), Ana Torfs (B), and Costa Vece (CH).

The exhibition was curated by Thomas Seelig.

Main sponsor: Swiss Re