Dear members
We hope you all had a good summer! Here is some news from recent weeks as well as some announcements for the upcoming months.
RECAP: Spectrum Day – September 7, 2019 at Musée des beaux-arts (MBAL) in Le Locle
After the first Spectrum Weekend in Soglio last year the board decided to go with an alternating rhythm for the annual event. For the one-day event around forty-five SPECTRUM members met up on September 7 at the Musée des beaux-arts Le Locle. Spectrum board member Nathalie Herschdorfer, who is the director of MBAL, organized the programme, as well as the warm welcome. Once more, a big thanks to her and the MBAL team!
During the morning we also heard from both the president of the museum association as well as from Nathalie Herschdorfer about the dire local political scenario that - through severe budget cuts - is threatening the activities and future of the museum. If you want to support MBAL you can do so by donating for their campaign, sending a letter of support to the museum or signing the petition on change.
In the morning we received a guided tour through the four exhibitions currently on view at MBAL: Henrik Spohler: Parc du Doubs, Charles L’Eplattenier: Jura, MAGNUM Mountains, and Noémie Goudal: Telluris. This was followed by a lunch allowing ample time for informal networking.
The afternoon was taken up by five plenary discussions, each of them moderated and briefly introduced, on the following topics in relation to Photography and the Museum.
Available on the Spectrum Website.
STATEMENT: SPECTRUM's position towards the Kulturbotschaft 2021-24
The board of Spectrum - Photography in Switzerland has studied the Kulturbotschaft zur Förderung der Kultur 2021-2024 and offers a comment on five points.
Available on the Spectrum Website.
FRIENDLY REMINDER + SAVE THE DATE: WHAT’S NEXT 2020 – November 29, 2019, Stadtmuseum Aarau
As already announced 20 Institutions & Individuals in Switzerland (Museums, Galleries, Collections, Archives, Publishers, Writers, Teachers, Festival Directors, Restorators etc.) present their most important Photo Projects in 2020. Followed by drinks, food and extended small talks.
This year the successful formula will take place in Aarau, the call for contribution will be sent out in August.
Location: Stadtmuseum Aarau, Schlossplatz 23, CH-5000 Aarau. www.stadtmuseum.ch
13.30-16.30 What’s Next 2020? (Welcome und Presentation-slots)
16.30-19.00 Drinks, food and small talk
Entry is free. Registration however is obligatory, until November 15 at: spectrum@photography-in-switzerland.ch
General Assembly of Spectrum
The General Assembly of Spectrum – Photography in Switzerland will also take place at Stadtmuseum Aarau on Friday, November 29, 2019. Starting 10.00, finishing at 11.15, the General Assembly is followed by a guided tour focussing on “Photography at Stadtmuseum Aarau” and a lunch for the participants of the general assembly from 12.15 until 13.15.
Registration of Spectrum members until November 8th at:
spectrum@photography-in-switzerland.ch
INVITE from board member Nadine Wietlisbach
It will certainly be a colorful autumn in Winterthur. The phenomenon of color in film and photography will be illuminated from a multitude of perspectives.
Color Mania – The Material of Color in Photography and Film, Fotomuseum Winterthur
07.09.–24.11.2019
Right from their inception in the nineteenth century, photography and film have been colorful media and art forms, though this is largely unknown to the general public and often overlooked in art historical and academic debates. Color was added to the first photographs, among them daguerreotypes, from 1839 onward and cyanotypes from the 1840s attained their characteristic blue tinge from the chemical reactions of the photographic printing process. Likewise, early cinematic works from the 1890s, such as Loïe Fuller’s dance films, were tinted, toned and hand-colored spectacles.
Since then, a great deal has happened, as in the course of their respective histories photography and film have interacted with one another, while spawning several hundred different color processes. Some of these techniques – including the Autochrome process invented by the Lumière brothers – were developed for photography and subsequently used in film. Others – such as the Gasparcolor process – were initially used in film production and only later applied to photography, marketed, in the case of Gasparcolor, as Cibachrome by the Swiss company Ciba.
Color Mania is an art and science exhibition that examines these developments and the history of color as a material in photography and film. Through works by the contemporary artists Dunja Evers, Raphael Hefti, Barbara Kasten and Alexandra Navratil, historical photographs and original film materials enter into a dialogue with the present, as these artworks yield a wide range of connections to the history of color photography and color film, provide reflections on color techniques and allow for a sensual approach.
Curated by Dr. Eva Hielscher and Nadine Wietlisbach.
On October 23rdand October 24th, the Memoriav Colloquium takes place at Fotozentrum. Topic of the congress is the preservation and exhibition of «Color» regarding audiovisual cultural heritage.
During the 23rdInternationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur the short film program Color Moods (November 7th, November 9thand November 10th) is dedicated to color aesthetics in film.
Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy, Le Ballet Mécanique, 1923. Collection Eye Filmmuseum. Photo: Olivia Kristina Stutz. © 2019, Pro Litteris, Zürich
Experts' Essay #4:
Post-Photography: What’s in a Name?
Each newsletter is accompanied by an essay, a work report or a plea by a photography expert from Switzerland. This autumn we present an essay by Wolfgang Brückle and Marco De Mutiis who are both researchers at the SNSF funded research project Postfotografie. Apparate, Praktiken, Bilder in Kunst und Alltagskultur at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). The project aims to explore photographic practices against the background of digitalization and the interconnection of the production of images in everyday life, entertainment culture and art.
Available on the Spectrum Website.
We wish you a heart-warming cultural autumn!
See you soon.
With kind regards
Urs Stahel
President of Spectrum – Photography in Switzerland
On behalf of the Spectrum Board