Project

Photographer Peter Maurer was 23 years old when he produced the series "Journey into the City of the Future" in Biel/Bienne in 1986. It was his entry for a competition on the theme of the future, perhaps organized by the city - Peter Maurer isn't quite sure after all this time. He was living in the Biel region that year, and was doing an internship with a master of the Swiss photography scene, Heini Stucki. With his dreamy, dynamic staging of himself as a business traveler about to enter the urban landscape of Biel - in a light-flooded vision of the future - Peter Maurer won the competition and was able to pocket CHF 3,000 in prize money - "a lot of money at the time", laughs Maurer. The photos were then exhibited at Photoforum Pasquart, which had just celebrated its third anniversary, before being purchased by the art commission of the city of Biel/Bienne.

Today, a photograph from Maurer's series adorns the cover of the Photoforum's summer exhibition BACK UP THE FUTURE, produced in collaboration with the Department of Culture. The Photoforum has entrusted Biel artist and photographer Thalles Piaget (just a little older than Peter Maurer in 1986) with the task of making a subjective selection from the 2485 photographic works in the art collection of the city of Biel/Bienne. With his fresh, professional eye and unerring fairness for photographic qualities, he has woven a rich and surprising arc of images, from 19th-century portraits to contemporary photographic art. With the city of Biel/Bienne as a backdrop, the exhibition brings together well-known Biel-based names such as Christian Staub, Heini Stucki, Jeanne Chevalier, Alexander Jaquemet, Raphael Hefti, Françoise and Daniel Cartier, Rolf Neeser and Eric Sandmeier, as well as international greats such as Christian Vogt, Matthieu Gafsou, Oscar Wiggli, Ernst and Margrit Baumann, and lesser-known or forgotten artistic positions. In addition, Thalles Piaget has made some surprising discoveries, such as a portrait photograph taken by the former director of Photoforum and current director of the Centre de la Photographie in Geneva, Danaé Panchaud, or a series of slides by Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, made for the Journées photographiques de Bienne a few years ago.

The art collection of the city of Biel/Bienne is a rich local "back-up" to a medium that has shaped our society like few others, and continues to evolve.

A big thank you goes to the Department of Culture of the City of Biel/Bienne for the support, especially to Hannah Külling for the great cooperation.

Legends