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Cyril Porchet

Awarded

Cyril Porchet

'Meetings', photo research

Photography

Jury report

Churches of Power
In his 'Meet­ings' pro­ject, Cyril Porchet shows us a se­ries of large-for­mat pho­tographs of the ex­hi­bi­tion halls or lec­ture halls used to host the share­hold­ers' meet­ings of major com­pa­nies, taken shortly be­fore the events begin.
In 2010, Porchet won the Swiss Fed­eral De­sign Award for his 'Séduc­tion' se­ries, a se­ries of im­ages of nine elab­o­rately dec­o­rated baroque churches which posed ques­tions about the cul­ture of spec­ta­cle and ex­cess past and pre­sent. 'Meet­ings'con­tin­ues the same theme, but for this new se­ries the pho­tog­ra­pher looks at the cur­rent state of af­fairs, seek­ing the places where pow­er­ful as­sem­blies are found today. In frontal pic­tures, he shows the im­mense tem­po­rary struc­tures erected for the an­nual meet­ings of UBS, Siemens, No­var­tis and other firms.
In these pic­tures, the op­u­lence and ex­cess of baroque churches finds a con­trast in a sleek­ness and re­duc­tion that is in­tended to sym­bol­ise the trans­parency and earnest­ness of the firms in­volved. Using an ana­logue large-for­mat cam­era (4×5), Cyril Porchet has over­ex­posed the prin­ci­pal el­e­ments, in­tro­duc­ing a de­gree of ab­strac­tion. Through var­i­ous stages, this trans­forms the real struc­tures into sculp­tural, brightly il­lu­mi­nated and ephemeral forms.
The par­al­lels are ev­i­dent: seat­ing which, seen in dark­ness, re­sem­bles church pews; brightly lit-up screens that show turnover fig­ures and brand mod­els in­stead of form­ing the back­ground to a baroque altar; and the speaker's podium, which has re­placed the pul­pit. Cyril Porchet has suc­ceeded in build­ing on his 'Séduc­tion' pro­ject in an in­tel­li­gent way and to a high stan­dard. It will be in­ter­est­ing to see which cen­tre of power he will tackle next.

Biography

Cyril Porchet
Born in
1984
Education
Photographer

Web

www.cyrilporchet.com

also in

2010

2015

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