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Hans Steiner. Chronique de la vie moderne

Feb 9th - May 15th, 2011, Photo Elysée, Lausanne

May 28th - Oct 09th, 2011, Fotostiftung Winterthur 

Oct 29th, 2011 - Jan 29th, 2012, Médiathèque Valais, Martigny

March 10th - June 3rd 2012, Museo Villa dei Cedri, Bellinzona 

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Project directed by Daniel Girardin, Christophe Blaser

Curated by Daniel Girardin, Christophe Blaser, Elisa Rusca

www.elysee.ch 

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Catalogue (FR/DE) edited by Editions Photosynthèses, 2011.​

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>>> Press reviews

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A major figure in Swiss photography, Hans Steiner was part of the golden age of Swiss photojournalism (1930s and 1940s). The Musée de l’Elysée wishes to restore the reputation of this great but unjustly forgotten photographer, with an emphasis on his modernist vision of society.A privileged witness, both unconventional and decidedly optimistic of a society starting to focus on consumption, Steiner offers a different and more urban vision of Switzerland, in which women, sport, entertainment and advertising gain a new visibility.

 

This exhibition has the dual aim of showing the most representative and the most attractive of Steiner’s images and of offering a contemporary perspective on a historical subject.​The exhibition is be accompanied by a bilingual French-German catalogue, which presents a selection of 220 photographs by Hans Steiner, as well as documents in colour, such as contact sheets and illustrated covers. Several articles take stock of the substantial research undertaken throughout the project to understand the growing interest in Hans Steiner and the reasons for the deserved rediscovery of his work.

 

The Hans Steiner: Chronique de la vie moderne exhibition has been made possible through close collaboration between different institutions. The extraordinary collection of images in possession of the Musée de l’Elysée has undergone extensive restoration, development, digitisation and promotion, led by the museum in partnership with Unil, Memoriav, the Swiss Institute for the Conservation of Photography in Neuchâtel and the Büro für Fotografiegeschichte in Bern.

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Scientific committee: Daniel Girardin, Christophe Blaser, Philippe Kaenel, Stephan Holenstein, Elisa Rusca, Markus Schüepp, Manuel Sigrist, François Vallotton

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