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| NOMAD Interview Bern | | home | |
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| Interview with Paul Cottin | ||
| Programme director of
the gallery TH13 in Bern (Switzerland),
an initiative of Hermès' new foundation (la Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, www.fondationdentreprisehermes.org) |
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| The
gallery TH13 is part of Hermès' new foundation (la Fondation
d'entreprise Hermès). What is the role of the gallery in the context of
the foundation? TH13 is one of the Hermès Foundation Galleries, with a particular focus on the Swiss artistic scene in the area of photography. A significant part of its activity is devoted to emerging artists. However, TH13 also aims to take its place in the rich and varied history of photography in Switzerland. The presentation of work by young artists must be understood in the context of this history - as such, we frequently present the work of established artists, while emphasizing a lesser-known aspect of their work. What is the particularity of Swiss photography? Swiss photography has a long heritage: the reputation of Swiss photographers and institutions and the wealth of its collections are renowned far beyond its borders. Moreover, Swiss artists have played an important role in the sphere of photography from the outset (e.g. Hans Finsler, Jacob Tuggener, Robert Frank, Werner Bischof, Henriette Grindat, Balthazar Burkhard, Beat Streuli, etc.), not to mention the role of its various institutions (Fotomuseum Winterthur, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, the Swiss Photography Foundation, the DU stores, Camera, the publisher Scalo, etc.). Will the gallery focus essentially on photography? Yes. However, the quality of today’s artists and photographers - and artist-photographers - is such that it leaves considerable scope to transgress the formal boundaries which were once the norm in the field. Thus photography must certainly be understood in broader terms than was the case even a few years ago. What kind of artists will you present? TH13 is above all a space open to the richness and diversity of photographic work. One of photography’s greatest attributes is its plasticity, its capacity to take account of a vast range of highly diverse forms of artistic endeavour. Each work exhibited at TH13 is marked by the deep commitment of the artists selected. Just a few words about the current Sarah Girard show… Sarah Girard’s work bears the hallmark of an alert eye and portrays with great truthfulness a world that is a priori impossible to represent - the intimacy of a psychoanalyst’s office. The distinctiveness of this work results from the way in which it reveals how much these places are “inhabited” by lives which tell their stories day after day. Her “minimalist” work unveils this “presence” with great subtlety, a presence visible in the fabrics of the armchairs and couches and also - less tangibly - in the patients’ gazes, fixed on window frames and cornices. Can you tell us about the future programme? Leo Fabrizio, Irène Stehli, Geoffrey Cottenceaux and Romain Rousset. |
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| Sarah Girard, from the series "Cabinets”, 2008 Born in Geneva in 1978, Sarah Girard studied art and photography at l’Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Genève and at Goldsmiths in London. She has exhibited her work throughout Europe and was a prize winner at the Festival of Photography F-Stop in Leipzig for the series “Cabinets” in 2008. She lives and works in Geneva and will have a solo exhibition “Rémanence” at the gallery TH13 - la Fondation d’entreprise Hermès in Bern from October 16th to December 11th, 2009. www.sarahgirard.net |
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