Current

FOTO SZENE GR
Albert Steiners Erben

Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, June 19 to September 12, 2010

www.fotoszene.gr.ch     exhibition video

The project FOTO SZENE GR of the Bündner Kunstmuseum reflects the rich photographic oeuvre in and from Graubünden, and is conceived as a long-term research project, consisting of a website, exhibitions and a magazine. The first exhibit and the first issue of the magazine are on the topic Albert Steiner’s Heirs.

Albert Steiner’s Heirs as a title for an exhibition on contemporary photography in Graubünden is programmatic and provocative. For as a photographer from Graubünden there is no getting around Albert Steiner (1877-1968), who like no-one else determined the photographic image of the mountain canton. With his landscape photographs between 1910 and 1930 Steiner set a high technical as well as aesthetic standard. To this day the analogue perfection and the documentary approach plays a central role, as the work of Guido Baselgia (*1953), Thomas Popp (*1966) or Stephan Schenk (*1962) prove. Also the concern with landscape remains a dominant theme, although in a highly diverse manner: analytical with Hans Danuser (*1953), surreal with Florio Puenter (*1964) and socio-critical with Jules Spinatsch (*1964). Gaudenz Signorell (*1950), in turn, by his treatment of motive and media, crosses the borderline to painting. As contrast to these established photographers from Graubünden some more recent positions have been chosen: Gaudenz Metzger (*1980) working with performance, and Corinne Rusch (*1973) with staged photography, then Ester Vonplon’s (*1980) associative documentary series or the installations by the artist duo Goran Galic / Gian-Reto Gredig (1976/1977).

The selective review of historic photographer personalities such as Adolphe Braun, Andrea Garbald, Romedo Guler, Elizabeth Main, Emil Meerkämper, Josef Rauch, Albert Steiner amongst others, allows for an analysis of current photography in Graubünden as to similarities and differences and possible lines of tradition. The choice of these photographers is based on interviews with and visits to the archives of the individual artists, who are specifically interested in historical positions. At the centre, however, was not a chronological reconstruction of Graubünden’s photo history, but rather the personal affinities and relatedness to the visual heritage of a specific cultural region. On this basis FOTO SZENE GR also asks the question, how an artistic scene comes into being, what it amounts to and whether one can speak of a photo scene in Graubünden today. For this purpose a website www.fotoszene.gr.ch is being launched, which will serve beyond the exhibition as context data base and information platform for photography in Graubünden.

                                                                    Katharina Ammann

Guido Baselgia, Hans Danuser, Goran Galić / Gian-Reto Gredig, Gaudenz Metzger, Thomas Popp, Florio Puenter, Corinne L. Rusch, Stephan Schenk, Gaudenz Signorell, Jules Spinatsch, Ester Vonplon

Adolphe Braun, Jean Gaberell, Andrea Garbald, Romedo Guler, Carl Anton Lang, Elizabeth Main, Emil Meerkämper, Christian Meisser, Andreas Pedrett, Josef Rauch, Anton Reinhardt, Othmar Rutz, Albert Steiner

Opening
Friday, June 18, at 7 pm

Address Dr. Beat Stutzer
Introduction Dr. Katharina Ammann, Curator/Project Manager

Festina with food and beverages

Panel Discussions
Overestimated Father Figure? – Albert Steiner and Photography from Graubünden
With Guido Baselgia, Peter Pfrunder, Florio Puenter and Jules Spinatsch moderated by Walter Keller
Wednesday, June 23, at 7:15 pm

Art and Commerce? – Photography between Commission Work and Free Art
With Goran Galic/Gian-Reto Gredig, Raymond Meier, and Ester Vonplon, moderated by Patrick Frey
Thursday, September 9, at 7:15 pm

Guided Tours
July 1 and 29, August 5 and 19, September 2
Thursdays, 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Thematic Tours
Art over Lunch. A critique of Florio Puenter’s Lej da Segl, 2009
Thursday, June 24, from 12:30 – 1 pm

A tour with Stephan Schenk and Katharina Ammann with main focus on photo history and technique
Thursday, July 15, from 12:30 – 1 pm

Katharina Ammann talks to Hans Danuser about his work and his discovery of the photographer Andrea Garbald (1877-1958) from the Bergell
Thursday, August 26, from 12:30 – 1:30 pm

Museum Education
Introduction for teachers
August 18, from 5 pm - 7 pm

Click! Photography then and now
Museum education tours for all school levels on request.

Children’s Workshops – Taking photos with the artist Ester Vonplon and the museum educator Alexa Giger
August 25, from 2 pm – 4 pm (6-8 years)
September 8, from 2 pm to 4 pm (9-12 years)
Atelier rumantsch, il 1. da settember, da las 14 fin las 16

Magazine
FOTO SZENE GR. Albert Steiners Erben, ed. by Katharina Ammann, with contributions by Katharina Ammann and Nicole Seeberger, Benteli Verlag, Bern – Sulgen – Zürich, 2010, 80 pages, approx. 154 illustrations, CHF 28.- / CHF 20.- for BKV members.

The exhibition and the publication were made possible thanks to the contributions of:

Alfred Richterich Stiftung

Ars Rhenia - Stiftung zur überregionalen Förderung von Kunst und Kultur

Boner Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur

Willy Muntwyler-Stiftung St. Moritz