Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs – Eurasia

Following their phenomenally successful work The Great Unreal, a road trip through the USA that they subsequently estranged in their studio to the point of recognizability, in 2013 the Swiss duo Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs set out once again on a new trip. Now, in their newest large-scale project, they take us on a road trip eastwards. The route took Onorato & Krebs through Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Moldavia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia. Through regions that are also in a state of transition, territories about which those in the West know very little. The resulting photo series poses a counterpoint to The Great Unreal. In contrast to the omnipresent cultural and visual material that pours out of the USA, the artists hardly had few visual preconceptions of the East. Using obsolete mediums such as 16 mm film and large-format plate cameras, as well as additional constructions built in their studio, they expand the terrain of the documentary. In a grotesque way, the idea and myth of a thing stands as much in the foreground as its concrete reality; its possible past and future come together in a single moment.

A magazine in German/English accompanies the exhibition. An extensive book on Eurasia will be published by Edition Patrick Frey in 2016.

The exhibition was curated by Thomas Seelig.

Supported by the Hulda and Gustav Zumsteg-Stiftung, Volkart Stiftung, Monterosa Group, Ernst Göhner Stiftung and Dr. Georg and Josi Guggenheim-Stiftung.