Douglas Mandry


Eismeer, 2019
Lithography on geotextile (glacier cover), steel nails, 114 × 130 cm, 45 × 51 in, unique piece

© Douglas Mandry / Courtesy Bildhalle Gallery

Monument/Aletsch #3, 2018
Ice photogram digitally printed on glass, 50 × 70 cm / 19,6 × 27,5 in, edition of 5

© Douglas Mandry / Courtesy Bildhalle Gallery


Born in Geneva (Switzerland) in 1989

Lives and works in Zurich, Switzerland

Those may last forever

Douglas Mandry works both on exploring territories and the history of photography. In an always more digitalized world, his work is a constant reaction to technological acceleration and its consequences on the man-nature relationship. Photography being known as a tool for the observation of nature and scientific research, it has become for him a way to question our relationship to time, space and memory through an experimental and sculptural practice, which merges traditional photographic processes with natural and man-made elements.
Alternating journeys in the wild, experimental lab sessions and photographic archive deep diving, his practice brings up questions of memory, sustainability and how we cohabit with images — by extension with nature and its representation.

His project Monuments, part of the a ppr oc he exhibition, merges natural, man made and photographic material related to the issue of melting glaciers in Switzerland, addressing a critical look at the way we deal with a phenomenon that we ourselves generated. The installation is composed of melting ice photograms coming from the Aletsch glacier, and unique lithographs print on geotextile from gathered alpine images from the early 20th century. The geotextile, also called glacier blanket, was collected after a season spent on the Andermatt glacier. Those may last forever is a critical statement on ephemerality, in a journey through disappearing Swiss glaciers.

Douglas Mandry is a Swiss artist, born in 1989 in Geneva and graduated from ECAL University of Arts in 2013. His work has been exhibited at the C/O Berlin (“Back to the Future”, 2018), Centre de la Photographie de Genève (“When the Air Becomes Electric”, 2019), Plat(t) form 15 at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, finalist at the Swiss Federal Design Awards 2015, nominated 3 times to the Paul Huf Award and to the Prix Pictet Commission (2019). His first book, Equivalences was published in 2019 by RVB BOOKS.



Bildhalle Gallery

The gallery Bildhalle, founded by Mirjam Cavegn in 2013, deliberately takes on the responsibility of a long-standing Swiss tradition regarding photography and its distribution as an artistic medium. In the interplay between selected established photographers of the 20th Century and those of a younger generation who aims to keep extending the medium, Mirjam Cavegn shapes an ambitious gallery program with the aim of positively influencing the reception and recognition of artistic photography. In just a few years, Bildhalle has established itself as one of today’s most respected photography galleries in Switzerland.

Bildhalle Gallery, Stauffacherquai 56 — 8004 Zürich, Switzerland

www.bildhalle.ch



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