Peter Piller – Periphery Walk, Winterthur

For almost twenty years Peter Piller (*1968 in Fritzlar) has been making peripheral excursions, or Peripheriewanderungen (Periphery Walks) in various European cities. In Hamburg, the Ruhr region, Bonn, Graz, and Barcelona he has explored small sections of areas marking the outer borders of urban settlement in cities and regions of varying size. In carrying out these walks Peter Piller follows things that catch his eye as well as cues from his memory, ending his excursion once he feels unable to take in anything more. When something particularly interests him on one of his explorations, he departs from his determined routes, wanders around through the area, or even simply waits for a key moment. Archives of photographs result, which he subsequently expands upon in his studio with his Erinnerungszeichnungen (Drawings from Memory). In these mental maps the medium of drawing supplements that of photography – and vice versa.

Fotomuseum Winterthur commissioned Peter Piller with a work, which brought him to Winterthur multiple times to take photographs in the years 2013/14. In the exhibition Peripheriewanderung Winterthur (Periphery Walk, Winterthur) and the artist book by the same name (published by Nieves) we witness how a passionate interest from his childhood repeatedly enters into Piller’s life. Or in his own words: “Interests buried or repressed by hormones do not die but live on in encapsulated form, unnoticed for decades at a time, and then suddenly they appear once again. In the new millennium they have been displaced further, taking a biographic track and demanding, naturally and immediately, an outlet through photography.” With his laconic and humorous gaze he not only focused his camera on aging industrial complexes, neatly organized residential developments, and areas of greenery, but also engaged in a reflection on his own profession.

Peripheriewanderung Winterthur (Periphery Walk, Winterthur) has been commissioned in conjunction with the 750th anniversary of the city of Winterthur.

The main sponsor of the project is Credit Suisse. Additional support was kindly provided by Hunziker Betatech AG, the Sulzer Foundation, the Volkart Foundation and the Cassinelli-Vogel-Foundation.