WIDMER+THEODORIDIS contemporary is delighted to open the season with a new exhibition by the Zurich-based photographers Andreana Scanderbeg and Alexander Sauer. Their second one-(wo)man show Chavalon takes its name from the now disused Chavalon Thermal Power Station located in Vouvry in Valais.
Following their highly successful Decommissioned exhibition, SCANDERBEG SAUER aim now their lens at out-of-use industrial plants. While aeroplanes such as those portrayed in Decommissioned can be removed from service without too much trouble, the removal from operation of larger and primarily housed machine installations is slightly more complicated.
The history of Chavalon is marginally relevant when wishing to understand SCANDERBEG SAUER’s series of images. Chavalon is exemplary of many other industrial plants. ...
SCANDERBEG SAUER will present photographs from their DECOMMISSIONED series taken at the Mojave Air and Space Port in the Californian desert. The exhibition at WIDMER+THEODORIDIS contemporary in Zurich will coincide with the book launch.
DECOMMISSIONED gives a close-up look at what once stood for dynamism, elegance, beauty and speed but now lays askew, jacked up and split open in hot desert sand. What we see are the staple favourites: a Jumbo Jet, a DC-10, a Convair – all somewhat worse for wear, but perfectly recognisable. SCANDERBEG SAUER conjure up the resplendent past of these lifeless bodies in their aesthetically flawless images.
Andreana Scanderbeg (*1969 in Los Angeles) and Alexander Sauer (*1971 in Frankfurt am Main) both live in Zurich and have worked together as SCANDERBEG SAUER since 2005. They are...