Pictures to raise
Awareness on the challenges
Facing Mountain Regions
MONGOLIA
Sunderiya Erdenesaikhan & SMArt
Sunderiya Erdenesaikhan is a Mongolian artist working mainly with the still-life genre. She likes to create new compositions by juxtaposing traditional Mongolian objects with everyday objects. Her main topics of interest are cultural and local traditions as well as traditional food.
Sunderiya was in residency in Bellwald from the beginning of October to the end of December 2023. She focused on the traditional foods of the Valais and met people who practice the ancient crafts of cheese and rye bread with great dedication, and in turn pass them on to future generations. Sunderiya’s artwork take us from the craft to the mouth, which, as we all know, is not just for eating, but also for passing on experience and knowledge.
MONGOLIA
Sunderiya Erdenesaikhan – Career
Born in 1989 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – Lives and works in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Education
2021 – Master of Photography, Fine Art Faculty – University of Arts and Culture, Mongolia
2012 – Bachelor of Painting, Fine Art Faculty – University of Arts and Culture, Mongolia
Work
2023 – UN FAO Mongolia 50th Anniversary Book, “World Food day 2023”
2023 – Group exhibition “IN”visible-Air, Creative Photo Lab & Goethe Institut Mongolia
2022 – UN FAO Mongolia “SHE THE FOOD HERO”, solo photo exhibition for “Word Food Day 2022”
2022 – photographer for the Mongolian-Polish joint Archaeological Expedition Cilicon Paleohondi Research Project TSARP (joint project of Mongolian University of Education, Universytet Wroclawski, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, National Science Center, Academy of Fine Arts).
GEORGIA
Maryam Mumladze & SMArt
Maryam Mumladze is a Georgian artist with an interdisciplinary approach: she likes to merge documentary storytelling, conceptual photography and exploration of social issues. She believes in the power of visual storytelling to convey complex social issues and initiate significant conversations.
Maryam Mumladze was in residency in Château Mercier in Sierre from beginning of August to the end of October 2023. Three days after she arrived in Switzerland, a huge debris flow struck the town of Shovi, in the artist’s native Georgia. Symbolizing the confrontation between the power of nature and the place of human beings within it, this event prompted the photographer to work on the question of environmental risks and their management, particularly in the current context of global warming.
GEORGIA
Maryam Mumladze – Career
Born in 1996, in Tbilisi, Georgia – Lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia
Education
2022 – Participant in the visual storytelling workshop by John Stanmeyer
2022 – Fellow of visual storytelling fellowship at Chai Khana
2021 – Master in Media Arts Media Arts Culture Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree, Danube University Krems, Aalborg University, University of Lodz
2018 – Bachelor of Social Sciences, The Free University of Tbilisi
Work
2023 – Shortlisted at Kolga Tbilisi Photo Festival in the category « One Shot”
2023 – Shortlisted at Young Lions Georgia, Creative competition in the category of Film
2022 – Content Creator, backstage/still photographer at Creative agency JWT Metro
2022 – Fixer, photographer assistant at the Storytelling Workshop by John Stanmeyer
2022 – Photographer and showroom manager at Tranoï Fashion Trade Show Paris
2021 – Curatorial Intern, creative researcher, photographer at LAS (Light Art Space), Berlin
2020 – Volunteer, Expo host at Transmediale Berlin
COLOMBIA
Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo is a photographer and visual artist interested in the themes of migration, violence and social justice. Through his activity as an editor at Raya Editorial of various photobooks about conflict and social tension, he has gained a deep understanding of the role that photography can play in promoting changes. Since 2012, as a photographer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), he has documented the experiences of refugees and migrants in Central America, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, and has seen first-hand the difficulties and challenges they face.
Most of Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo’s work is based on participatory, urban and landscape interventions that are later photographed. For him, architecture, sculpture and drawing are allies in the creation of images and objects that represent experiences and dreams.
Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo was in residency in Verzasca (Ticino) from mid-June to mid-September 2023. He worked on the theme of migration and the experiences of migrants in Val Verzasca. His artwork represent the experiences and emotions of migrants through sculptures and objects, by involving locals and migrants population in its creation.
Il cuore migra
COLOMBIA
Born in 1979, in Manizales, Colombia – Lives and works in Manizales, Colombia
Education
2017 – Hydra Photobook Incubator, Mexico City
2009 – Master’s degree in Photography and Urban Cultures, Goldsmiths College, University of London
2005 – Architect, Universidad de Colombia
Work
2023 – International winner of Helsinki Photo Festival 2022 and FOTOFESTIWAL, Poland
2019-2023 – Founder and editor at Raya Editorial and AñZ, Expanded Photography of Latin America
2022 – Visual curator of the Commission for the Clarification of the Truth, Colombia
2012-2020 – Founding member of 20 Fotógrafos and Colectivo+1
2018 – Outstanding graduate from Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2018, category « Research or Artistic and Cultural Creation »
2018 – First Publication Prize FUTURA Felifa
2015 – First Prize of Encuentros Abiertos-Festival de la Luz, Argentina
LEBANON
Lara Chahine lives and works in Lebanon. She is a self-taught freelance photographer and researcher. Her approach to photography is spontaneous, and her goal is to interpret the world around her, both contextually and visually. Chahine aims to match the appropriate medium of photography with the themes, message or emotion she is trying to evoke. She has mainly worked on political and personal revolutions, from protests in Lebanon to the toxicity of beauty standards.
Lara Chahine was in residency in Poschiavo in Graubünden from mid-March to mid-June 2023. She finds herself in one of the driest periods in memory, and the inhabitants showed concern about the shortage of water.
Lara’s images do not want to judge our habits, but rather makes us reflect on which formes of consumption we can give up and which we cannot. She asks residents what the power of water represents to them, and creates images from collected stories, which demonstrates and awareness of the climate emergency. Lara’s intention is not to show us a catastrophic vision but rather to push us to reflect through juxtapositions with an often surrealist flavor, not least because they take place in contexts often mistakenly thought of as inexhaustible sources of water.
LEBANON
Born in 1998, in Boston – Lives and works in Lebanon
Education
Degree in Political science
2019 – Self-taught photographer
2021 – Arab Documentary Photography Program x Magnum Foundation Grantee
2021 – Portraiture Intimacy and the Long Term Project Scholarship Recipient with Laluz Workshops and Rania Matar
Work
2022 – Gulf Photo Plus, “Swallow This, Arab Women and Body Politics” duo exhibition with Reem Falaknaz and curated by Rama Ghanem (2022)
2022 – Les Femmes Exposent, cinematic projection in Houlgate of the project Bless Your Beauty and Its Complicated
2022 – Jaou Tunis, billboard instillations of images from Bless Your Beauty across the city of Tunis as well as group photo exhibition in Avenue Habib Bourguiba (2022)
CHINA
Yingfei Liang lives and works in Guangzhou, China. She worked as a journalist for six years all over China, before beginning to practice photography in 2012. She started her professional career in documentary photography in 2015. In her work, Liang focuses on capturing marginal, disadvantaged and struggling people as she records their personal fate in the rapid transformation of Chinese society.
Yingfei Liang was in residency at the Crochetan Theatre from February to May 2023. Her work focus on the relationship between glaciers and local populations, including the use of archives and legends to illustrate the fragility of mountain regions under climate change. Liang aims to work on a project that can draw worldwide attention to the Valais glaciers’ decline. She is particularly interested in looking at folk tales surrounding glaciers. 21st century fables now revolve around the retreat of glaciers, the reappearances of hundred years old objects, or natural hazards. She aims to create image surrounding these new stories, which tell of crime and punishment, hope and redemption.
CHINA
YINGFEI LIANG – CAREER
Born in 1990, in Guangzhou – Lives and works in Guangzhou
Education
No formal education in art
Work
2018-2019 : multimedia program about survivors of sexual abuse
2020 : short video about pain and grief of people who lost their loved ones during COVID-19 outbreak in China
2022 : “The Pearl River Delta Community” book, reedition of photo stories about the history and development of foreign trade in Guangzhou
SYRIA
Hasan Belal lives and works in Damascus, Syria. He graduated from Economics University in Syria and has been working as a photographer since 2010, with special interest in photojournalism and visual anthropology. He worked with many local and international agencies and NGOs in Syria (UNICEF, ICRC, Caritas, NRC) and produced stories about life after war. Photography is for him a means of communication, through which he understands and analyses daily scenes in Syria.
Hasan Belal was in residency in Château Mercier in Sierre, from October to December 2022. His documentary project presents parts of the lives of a group of migrants in the region. Focusing on the feeling of longing felt by these people from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan – with whom the artist himself can identify – the exhibition aims to express the feelings of these immigrants in Switzerland. Hasan Belal also concentrates his work on the daily integration of his subjects into Swiss society.
SYRIA
HASAN BELAL – CAREER
Born in 1993, in Tartus, Syria – Lives and works in Damascus, Syria
Education
BA Economy, University of Syria
Photojournalism Workshop, Thomson Foundation, Dar Al Mussawir
Story telling target audience, RNTC
Photojournalism advanced workshop, Beirut Image Center
Exhibition
2021 – Chemistry Of Feeling, Gulf Photo Plus, UAE
2020 – Vantage Point Sharjah 8, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE
2019 – Connexion Festival Building Bridges, Mattatoio, Rome
2019 – Beirut Image Festival, Open Door, Beirut
2018 – Looking For Truth, Dar Al-Nimr, Beirut
PERÙ
Victor Zea lives and works in Cusco, Peru. His work is focused on the themes around identity, roots and territory. He finds that it is very important to understand and be fully aware of our origins. His latest project works on the idea of how the ancient and the modern coexist and reinterpret each other in search of identity and cultural resistance.
During his three-months residency in Verzasca (Ticino), Victor Zea met different generations of women and men who decide to migrate to the mountains – people looking for a lifestyle more in touchwith nature to achieve their own inner balance. He has also been interested in places considered as high-energy locations and has installed small cameras that will record the movement of the sun between the mountains during his stay.
Amalgama
PERÙ
Born in 1989 in Lima, Peru – Lives and works in Cusco
Education
2021 – Fellow Magnum Foundation’s Photography and Social Justice (USA)
2019 – Master in documentary photography at centro de la Imagen (Lima, Peru)
2012 – Bachelor of Administration at the University of Lima (Peru)
Awards
2021 – Selected for the Magnum Foundation’s Photography and Social Justice Fellowship
2021 – Third place / POY Latam. Category : Nuestra Mirada (Ecuador)
2020 – Recipient / COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists, National Geographic Society
Exhibitions
2020 – Collective Exhibition “Peru” At Lumen Continents with National Geographic (Italy)
2019 – Collective Exhibition por el Bicentenary of the independence of Peru
2018 – Collective Exhibition / Lumix Festival / Native Agency (Hannover, Germany)
MONGOLIA
Byamba Batkhuyag lives and works in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He first worked as a mining engineer, but unsustainable mining pushed him to become a freelance photographer. His focus is on portraits and street photography and his work shows mainly everyday scenes from the Ger District, the suburban area where Byamba has lived for 16 years. Byamba’s mother comes from a nomadic family from Akrhangai, where Byamba spent his summer holidays as a child in his grandparents’ yurt. He learned there the traditional form of nomadic agriculture (especially cattle, goat and sheep breeding).
During his three-month residency in Poschiavo in Graubünden, Byamba has been working on the theme of mountain agriculture. In his poetic images taken in the Poschiavo valley, we can meet cattle breeders and farmers : people linked to their land who value every gift of it, such as the small fruits or flowers that are transformed into food or medicine.
MONGOLIA
Born in 1992, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – Lives and works in Ulaanbaatar
Education
2013 – Bachelor of Engineering in Mining Technology, Mongolian University of Science Technology.
Exhibition
2021 – “New Creation People – 9”, exhibition, Batzorig Foundation of Documentary Photography.
2021 – “Migration”, online exhibition, IOM-UN Migration (OMMongolia-Non profit organization) and Mongolian Photography Association.
PERÙ
Alejandra Orosco is a photographer living in Urubumba, near the city of Cusco, in Peru. She uses photography as a tool to approach different social themes, such as migration and human fragility. Her photographic practice starts with a documentary approach, but also plays with fictional language and collaborative tools to portray the untold parts of stories.
During her three-months residence in Bellwald, the photographer looked at the signs of climate change in the Valais and compared them to the symptoms triggered by stress in the human body. She conducted interviews with local organic farmers, a botanist, and an environmental scientist to understand how plants reacts to climate change. She also learned how the human body reacts to stress thanks to interviews with a general practicioner. In her exhibition « Symptoms », she presents the results of her research and experiences.
PERÙ
Born in 1988 in Lima, Peru– Lives and works in Urubamba, Cusco, Peru
Education
2021 – VII Academy Mentee – “Central and South America : Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Seminar” with Monica Allende (UK/Virtual)
2019 – Documentary Photography Program – Centro de las Artes de San Angustin (CaSa), Oaxaca (Mexico)
2012 – Diploma in Visual Anthropology – Centro de la Imagen (Peru)
2007-2012 – Communication Sciences – University of Lima (Peru)
Prizes and achievements
2020 – Recipient of National Geographic Emergency Fund for Journalists (USA)
2019 – Shortlisted Lucie Foundation Scholarship Program (USA)
2019 – Nominee 6×6 Global Talent Program South America de World Press Photo (NL)
2019 – Shortlisted V Beca de Fotografia TAI (ESP)
2018 – Shortlisted “Primer Concurso de Fotografia Latinoamericana” por Luz del Norte (MX)
COLOMBIA
SERGIO PINZÓN & SMArt
Sergio Pinzón lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia. His general approach in his artistic work is to use appropriation strategies that focus on classic themes such as the construction of the landscape and the interaction of man with nature, problematizing the use of traditional codes of representation in the artistic field, as well as dynamics typical of the contemporary world.
Sergio Pinzón was in residence at the Crochetan Theatre in Monthey, from February to April 2022. The exhibition « The great invention of our time » consists in a series of documented experiences through photography and videography, which invites reflection on the relationship between nature and culture. His artwork shows the tension between natural landscapes and a controlled and modified environment as well as all the technological means used to maintain or create those landscapes in the aim to meet human needs, especially in the tourism sector.
COLOMBIA
SERGIO PINZÓN – CAREER
Born in 1988 in Bogotá, Colombia – Lives and works in Bogotá
Education
2014 – Master degree in Visual Poetics, Universidad de São Paulo
2011 – Bachelor in Fine Arts, Universidad de los Andes
Awards and honors
2021 – Winner of the scholarship for The Alternative Art School (TAAS). Artecámara, Artbo Program
2018 – Video art award. International Film Festival, Toro Vallee, CO
Solo exhibitions
2018 – Indigo, Galería Sancovsky, São Paulo, BR
2017 – Cuarto Ideal : estilo y espacio en el centro de Brasilia, Casa da Cultura da América Lattina-UnB, Brasilia, BR
2016 – Projeto de cyclorama #2, Temporada de Projetos, Paço das Artes, São Paulo. BR
2014 – Experiência de viagem fragmentada, Ateliê397, São Paulo, BR
Group exhibitions
2021 – ¡Lo que toca!, Galería Santa Fe, Bogotá, CO
2019 – En la mira, Galería La Cometa, Bogotá, CO
2018 – Otros Paisajes, Art Space Tel Aviv, BR
2017 – Colômbia Afora, O cina Cultural Oswald de Andrade, São Paulo, BR
2017 – Bartholomeu, Bendegó, BR
2017 – Arranjos, espaço SAO, São Paulo, BR
2015 – Contraprova, Paço das Artes, BR
2010 – Preferiría (sí) Hacerlo, Galería Espacio Alterno, Uniandinos, CO.
MOROCCO
HOSEIN JADDAD & SMArt
Hosein Jaddad uses photography and ceramics not only as mediums serving beauty but also as connectors with the world. His art is part of a meditative approach, a deep exchange with nature, a way to understand life and its magic. He is interested in the preservation of nature and sustainability. During his residency at the Villa Ruffieux in Sierre, the Moroccan artist reflected on the theme of sustainable agriculture and its impact on the environment. He attended the grape harvest and looked at the vineyard landscapes, the changes over the seasons, and the way they are worked. He met several wine growers in the Valais, captured their gestures and their workplaces, and tried to understand the challenges they are facing, between monoculture and permaculture, organic farming and the use of pesticides.
The exhibition “Between the vineyards live the butterflies” proposes a series of images mainly taken on the territory of the Rhone plain. Nature, its geometry, its patterns, its colors and its changes are the central points of his pictures and are the artist’s sources of inspiration. Through his photography, Hosein Jaddad questions our relationship with our environment. He has chosen to show not only the vineyards but also the biodiversity surrounding it – a biodiversity that must find its place in the Valais territory.
MOROCCO
HOSEIN JADDAD – CAREER
Born in 1991 in Safi City, Morocco – Lives and works in Safi
Hosein Jaddad is a photographer and a multidisciplinary artist from Safi, Morocco. Living on the coasts of Safi and Casablanca, he developed a love for the ocean. Over the course of his life, he has seen the impact of pollution on the shores and the loss of biodiversity in the oceans. He has then turned his focus on preservation of nature and sustainability, aiming to spread awareness about environmental destruction through photography and videography as well as teaching permaculture gardening practices and philosophy.
Education
2016 – Academy of Traditional Arts, Specialized in Ceramics and Calligraphy, Casablanca, Morocco
2013 – Safi Ceramic School, Safi, Morocco
Exhibitions
2020 – Galleri Hammer, Aalborg, Denmark
2019 – Mi Casa su Casa, CM Gallery (Hassan Hajjaj Group Show), Marrakesh, Morocco
2019 – Musée – La Fondation Farid Belkahia (Hassan Hajjaj Group Show), Marrakesh, Morocco
CHINA
WU YUMO & ZHANG ZEYANGPING & SMArt
During their residency in Monthey, at the Théâtre du Crochetan, Wu Yumo & Zhang Zeyangping immersed themselves almost everyday in the surrounding forest through long random walks. Their meditative artistic work, based on the principle of active contemplation, proposes a return to nature that allows them to connect the infinitely small to the infinitely big. They first produced an artists’ book handcrafted in China, and composed of poetic collages of flowers and leaves that trace the chronology of their harvest and represent a source of inspiration.
To pay homage to nature the duo chose the ancient technique of cyanotype. Waiting for the ideal light conditions invites us to cultivate patience and to accept the unexpected. This monochrome printing method allows them to capture the imprint of the collected plants. Carried by the poetry that naturally animates them, they highlight the wonderful details that we do not always pay attention to. Wu Yumo & Zhang Zeyangping rehabilitate the art of listening of to nature, and compare it to a living creature we should take care of with the greatest respect.
CHINA
WU YUMO & ZHANG ZEYANGPING – CAREER
Wu Yumo: Born in 1988,Nanchang,Jiangxi – Live in Beijing
Zhang Zeyangping: Born in 1989, Daqing,Heilongjiang – Live in Beijing
Wu Yumo and Zhang Zeyanpgping are a Chinese artist couple. Their work combines their own artistic practices in photography, fine art, and design. Space installation combined with photography and sound are their main creation methods. Their recent creation theme is the dialogue between natural objects and artifacts. A special focus of the two artists is sustainability and the use of natural materials, which was a key focus of their two past residencies at Skammdegi (is), and BigCi (au). Temporary use of natural materials like stones, branches, and other organic materials were either created into sculptures, transferred into prints, or made into paper.
Education
Wu Yumo:2011 – China Academy of Art
Zhang Zeyangping:2013 – Central University for Nationalities
Exhibitions/residencies
Wu Yumo/ Zhang Zeyangping:
MOROCCO
ZINEB ANDRESS ARRAKI & SMArt
Amor Fati features architectural photographs and landscapes surrounding the mountain village of Bellwald in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Arraki borrowed the title of the exhibition « Amor fati » (Latin for « love of fate ») from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This term means the greatest possible affirmation of life, the willingness to love everything that can happen and to take advantage of it. According to the artist, she has tried to live by this motto, especially since the beginning of the pandemic. For as everyone has experienced over the past year, life does not always follow our plans.
In a series of images in which she focuses on individual buildings and facades, the Zineb Andress Arraki traced the concepts of « house » and « home. » If people are absent from Arraki’s images, the laundry hung out to dry, a ladder leaning against the eaves, or a garage shoveled free, are all signs suggesting that the houses are inhabited and that life is still taking its course. In another series of images, Arraki conveys the melancholy of the off-season with views of snowed-in garage doors and unused mailboxes. Moisture stains on the concrete and cracks in the asphalt, as well as the melting of the snow, remind us of the impermanence of things. Finally, in the landscape images, snow unfolds all its magic. Close-ups and unusual perspectives put our visual habits to the test.
MOROCCO
ZINEB ANDRESS ARRAKI – CAREER
Born in 1984 in Casablanca, Morocco – Lives and works in Casablanca
« Poetically inhabiting the world »
This is the approach to everyday life and art that Zineb Andress Arraki tends towards. She likes to consider contemporary man in his multiplicity, in his complexity, in his dark side, finding a luminous path in the chaos in which he lives. This approach requires an ethic that respects otherness and honours the essence of our existence without giving way to the diktats of our capitalist world. A poetic attitude that for her becomes a political and ecological act to participate in the change of the world we live in.
Zineb’s work is above all a work of observation and interpretation of what she sees or what she can feel inside. Thus her themes of work derive from this, we can recognize them at their scale, they go from space to the body. She uses different media, photography, short films, models, sculptures, installations, architecture, sketches….
Education
2010-2011 DPEA Architecture and Philosophy (ENSAPV-Paris)
2009-2010 Architect Diploma DESA HMONP (ESA-Paris)
2008-2009 Habilitation to project management in one’s own name (HMONP ESA)
2007-2008 Diploma in Architecture DESA Grade 2 ( ESA-Paris)
Exhibitions
2019 Scenography of the exhibition « Material Insanity » at MACAAL, Marrakech
2019 Group exhibition, Sidi Harazem, a modern oasis at the CDG, Rabat
2018 Solo Show « Atmosphere » at Shart Gallery, Casablanca
ARGENTINA
MARCO CANALE
During his different stays in Sierre and Val d’Anniviers, Argentinean theater director Marco Canale is developping a participative theater project called « The Speed of Light », in the continuity of Argentina, Germany and Japan’s projects. The actors are the inhabitants of the Anniviers region, in particular old people, who do not necessarily have experience of the stage. The project seeks to understand the past and present of the region, as well as to imagine its future.
The people have been invited to take part in a collective play, during which they question their origins, learn to act, sing, write and dance. Together, they create a play connected to their memories, their life story and their vision. The relationship to animals, mountains, patois, society and the transhumance are the values they wish to pass on for the future, perpetuating in this way the knowledge and traditions of the Valais.
ARGENTINA
MARCO CANALE – CAREER
Born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina – Lives and works in Buenos Aires
Theatre director Marco Canale creates projects with local communities, which go through biography, documentary and fiction, crossing urban, natural and sacred spaces. Currently his work is focused on site specific projects as “The speed of light”, created together with elder people from different cultural contexts, taking cities as its stage to understand their history and to imagine its future. « The speed of light » was created in Buenos Aires (FIBA) and adapted in Germany (Festival Theaterformen) and Japan (Tokyo Tokyo Festival).
Education
2002-2005 Bachelor in Dramatic Art, in Dramaturgy and Direction. RESAD (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Madrid)
1996-1999 Bachelor in Film Direction and Scriptwriting. ENERC – INCAA
Projects
2019-2020 – The speed of light. Tokyo Tokyo Festival, Tokyo
2019-2020 – NOH. Fiction feature film
2018-2019 – Die Geschwindigkeit des lichts. Festival Theaterformen, Hannover, Germany
2019-2020 – Los Nacimientos. Teatro Cervantes, Buenos Aires
2018-2019 – Urquiza. Centro Cultural 25 de Mayo, Buenos Aires. Co-directed with Jorge Eiro.
2017 – La velocidad de la luz. Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA). Villa 31
2015 – La huella que deja la tierra. Guatemala – Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlín
2014 – The birth of my violence – Theatre Uncut. Edinb
COLOMBIA
STEPHANIE MONTES & SMArt
During her three-month residency at the Crochetan Theater in the spring of 2020 as part of the SMArt program, young Colombian photographer Stephanie Montes explored several themes inspired by the untamed nature. Her singular look at our environment highlighted the vital link between man and nature. In her series « The radiance of disaster », she presents a dystopian vision in connection with a strong nature that awakens from our repeated negative impacts. Both disturbing and attractive at the same time, the universes she has immortalized instantly capture our gaze. Her landscapes, full of strangeness, emanate a feeling of solitude.
At the same time, Stephanie Montes discovered moving family photographs from archives and photo albums from the Valais, which she chose for their emotional potential. By giving a second life to these pictures, the young artist questions the representations of intimacy and the stories they contain, and more broadly the memory of affects. Like emanations of presence, the family photographs associated with desolate stretches of land are thus part of a subtle « encounter ».
COLOMBIA
STEPHANIE MONTES – CAREER
Born in 1991 in Cali, Colombia – Lives and works in Cali
In her artistic work, Stephanie Montes’ general approach ranges from the understanding of human being and the relationship with territory, crossed by thematic axes such as memory and resilience. She is interested in the impermanence of things, always looking to experiment with printing materials and surfaces that show her the passage of time. She usually works in a narrative way by building bodies of images that translate her experience of the world in a poetic and almost dreamlike way. She also recently realised approaches to video and experimental cinema.
Education
2015 Bachelor in Visual Art
2015 Bachelor in Graphic Design
Solo exhibitions
2019 « La Grieta y la luz », Alliance française, Cali
2017 « Dia del sol », Lugar a dudas, Cali
Collective exhibitions
2019 20 Fotógrafos Atitlan, Guatemala
2019 « Dia del sol », 45 Salon Nacional de Artistas (National Hall of Artists), Bogotá Colombia.
2019 « La Grieta y la luz », Fotográfica Bogota, Colombia
2016 « El bayano », Feria del Millon Art Fair, Bogota, Colombia
PERU
LIZ TAZA & SMArt
During her three-month residency in Sierre, Peruvian photographer Liz Tasa freely pays tribute, through her work, to the abundant visions of Valais myths and legends. Liz Tasa’s photographic universe is based on a mixture of fear and fascination produced by the sovereignty of nature. Lenient, beautiful and generous, she can also be frightening. Earthquakes, avalanches, landslides, cyclones…. embody the omnipotence of the elements when they break out.
Through her photographs, Liz Tasa invites us to a « walk » in the heart of haughty and imposing scenery, on the scale of which we measure our smallness and vulnerability. On the borderline between materiality and fantasy, dreams and nightmares, these visions that touch the realm of the impalpable highlight our archaic fears, our superstitions and our dark areas.
PERU
LIZ TASA – CAREER
Born in 1988 in Lima, Peru – Live in Lima
The work of Liz Tasa revolves around social issues in Peru. She has developed several documentary projects that revolve around social exclusion, racism and human rights like forced sterilizations or the El Niño Phenomenon, both in Peru.
Based on a documentation work, the artwork of Liz Tasa poses a more sensory than a descriptive type of language. She usually works with a digital camera, LEDs and color photographs. Multimedia video as well as analog techniques such as the frames, technique of the artist Man Ray to make portraits, are also complementary medium of her work.
Education
From 2018 – Master of Photo Documentary at Centro de la Imagen, Lima, Peru
2012 – Communication at the University of Piura, Peru
Work experience
2018 – Photographer at Tres Mitades, a marketing and content management company
2016 – Photojournalist in Peruvian media Correo
2013-2015 – Photojournalist in Peruvian media Diario El Comercio
Prizes and achievements
2019 – Finalist in PHOTO IILA – XI Edition IILA-PHOTOGRAPHY « Gender Equality » with her project Kápar, Rome
2015 and 2017 – Twice finalist in the contest « Espacio y Tiempo »of the UPAO University
2014 – Finalist in the Eugene Courret national contest
Group exhibitions
2017 – « 58 Peruvian Photographers » at the Inca Garcilazo Cultural Center
2017 – « Portraits of the Family » organized by the Cultural Center of the University of Lima
2017 – « Self portrait of a Nation » at the Cervantes Institute in New York, United States
2017 – « Our eyes: The Emergence of Reconstruction » at the National Library of Peru and the exhibition
2017 – « Intolerance » at the Cultural Center of the University of Lima
MOROCCO
MALIKA SQALLI & SMArt
From the beginning of her stay in the Verzasca Valley, Malika Sqalli realized that the different places in the valley gave her opposite and contrasting sensations. Arriving with the intention of representing the valley’s relationship with tourism, she quickly felt oppressed by these « tourist spots » located near beaten paths and easily accessible: crowded car parks and rocks, river corners in vogue on instagram.
Faithful to her initial idea, she nevertheless decided to launch her project, representing the places most frequented by tourists. In her images, however, people remain distant and abstract. She decides to paint the visitors with bright colours that – depending on the title of her project – can be seen according to the sensitivity of the viewer, such as flowers or weeds.
Then Malika decides to leave the roads and the most frequented places in the valley. She begins her explorations among the peaks. Unlike the oppression she experiences at the bottom of the valley, Malika feels a new world up there and immerses herself in a personal fairy tale rich in new colors. Here, the paintings act as a visionary element in contrast to the material and artificial tones of the valley floor. In all the work, therefore, this dualism remains, between the materialism of the rapid and consumerist relationship of mass tourism and the feeling of solitude and the search for illumination, through the slow and reflective experience of nature.
MOROCCO
MALIKA SQALLI – CAREER
Born in 1977 in Rabat, Morocco – Lives in Rabat
Malika Sqalli comes from a mixed culture (Moroccan and Austrian ) background. She has lived in various countries, without her family from an early age, which translates in a position of « neither here nor there, nor on the fringes ». She feels foreign and belonging in many places at the same time, not only in terms of identity but also physically. Therefore the idea of home, culture, identity and place are for her a very fertile ground for investigation.
She has a holistic view on the world, in which she is interested in links between places, the in-between spaces and forgotten place, similarities between people’s behavior, congruencies in landscape, common wisdom, shared mythologies rather than differences and boundaries.
Education
2015 – Residency in Chennai with Magnum Photographer, Chien-Chi Chang
2015 – Schmiede Playground of Ideas Hallein, Austria
2000 – Arts Managements Diploma: Artistic Production at Birkbeck / Marketing & communication skills at Birkbeck
1996-2000 – Ecoles des Beaux Arts, Montpellier
Exhibitions
2017 – Atlas Electronic – A collaboration with Pein Lee, Marrakech
2017 – Betwixt and Between Fotografie Museum, Antwerpen, Belgium
2016 – Flight Photoplace Gallery, Vermont, USA
2016 – Optimism at AbGlobal, London, UK
2016 – Optimism at André Heller Anima Gardens gallery, Marrakech, Morocco
2015 – Stories and Secrets at Photoplace Gallery, Vermont, USA
2015 – Awan Arab Women Artist group show, London, UK
2015 – Optimism Ahead Solo show at the Arab British Centre, London, UK
COLOMBIA
JUAN PABLO MARIN & SMArt
Juan Pablo Marìn calls them the fruit of the mountains: the crystals that inspire him as a photographer among the steep cliffs of Göschenen in Uri’s raw uplands. It took these marvels millions of years of gestation, deep in the earth, before they were ready for explorers to find them.
Marìn’s portraits of crystal seekers, those who live on the mountain and in the mountain, who make their living from the mountain but above all who live with the mountain, tell of their passion and love for its stones, of their awe and respect for nature. Marìn’s pictures offer a glimpse of these people, and of their landscape, refracted through the crystals they search for. His is a condensation of the metaphorical, of the mighty poetry of time and decay, of the mountains’ effect on body and spirit.
And indeed, born in 1983 in Columbia and raised 1400 meters above sea level in the town of Armenia, surrounded by the Andes, Juan Pablo Marìn sees himself as a montañero, a man of the mountains.
Waiting for Millions of years
COLOMBIA
JUAN PABLO MARIN – CAREER
Born in Armenia, Colombia in 1982 – Lives in Cali, Colombia
For the last years, Juan Pablo has developed his work mainly with young people in urban and rural communities. His interests have been focused in social relationship of people with their customs, territory, and cultural transformations due to globalization and environmental impact. In his projects, participants have an active role in the writing of texts, the selection of pictures, and taking photos.
Education
2011 – Autor’s Photography, IDEP, Barcelona
2010 – Photography Degree Specialization, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota
2009 – Bachelor Degree in Philosophy, Universidad del Valle, Cali
Achievements and prizes
2018 – Creation Grant in Visual Arts, Secretaria de Cultura de Cali
2017 – Director of photography in the short film « María de los Esteros », Mention spéciale du jury labo, Festival du court métrage de Clermont-Ferrand
2016 – Creation Grant in Artistics Projects, Secretaria de Cultura del Valle del Cauca
2015 – Honorable Mention, The XI National Colombo Swiss Prize of Photography of the Culture Ministry
2014 – First place, Cultural Journalism Prize of the Culture Ministry
Exhibitions
2017 – Semana de la Alianza del Pacífico en Hanói, Embajada de Colombia en Vietnam
2016 – Pacífico Sur, Territorio revelado, Ministerio de Cultura
2013 – Fotografica Bogota, Bogota
2012 – ArteCamara, Bogota
2012 – Lucidas Miradas, Cali
2012- XVI Cruzada Artistas del Eje Cafetero, Pereira
2012- 14 – Salones Regionales, Zona Pacifico. ¿Qué es la Verdad? Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, Cali
LEBANON
Maternal and cruel, elementary and unendingly complex – nature rules the world. Suddenly the human race arrives with its dreams, ambitions and all-consuming need for security. Humans subjugate their environment, model it and use fire, language, reasoning and pictures to invent and produce thousands of artefacts. They rely on nature for sustenance while exploiting it to excess, they also derive inspiration and seek refuge in nature. In other words, they consume.
Through his art, Tarek Haddad questions the seemingly tyrannical and one-sided relationship we cultivate with nature. Instead of the bleak and accusing paintings one might expect, the viewer is invited into a poetic internalised world of deceleration and contemplation.
LEBANON
In his work, Tarek Haddad likes to question both intimate and collective relationship between humans and their surroundings, from personal possessions to natural realm. As an example, in his serie “Vesica Piscis”, he explores the separation of mankind from nature. Through his pictures, Tarek Haddad is interacting with the landscape while keeping the photograph void of physical human presence. He hold a B.S. in Computer Sciences (2013) and passed a B.A. in Photography (2017) at Notre Dame University – Louaize.
Tarek was selected as a grantee for the 4th cycle of the Arab Fund for Arts & Culture (AFAC)’s Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP) in 2017.
Solo Exhibition
2017 « Vesica Piscis », Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Raouche, Lebanon
Group exhibitions
CHINA
WENHUAN SHAO
The spiritual power of nature that emanates from mountain scenery and water has inspired Wenhuan Shao for many years. Immersed in the grandiose Swiss mountains, he focused on emblematic landscapes (the Matterhorn, the Aletsch glacier…). It is with delicacy and reflection that he apprehends these imposing reliefs, everything of which seems to have been said and shown in order to grasp in the end a new facet.
Through his images of mountains, the artist captures the splendour of the alpine landscape simultaneously with the violence that is inflicted on it. In contrast to this prodigious show, he grasped the devastating effects of human influence on nature. Thanks to the different plastic methods used, Wenhuan Shao shapes environmental threats and destruction. By working on his photographs by stratification, he materializes our footprint on the natural environment. His techniques of scraping and abrasion express this idea not of emptiness but of subtraction, of irreversible loss due to the depletion of natural resources, global warming and the fragility of our biotope. Provoking as much attraction as discomfort, his universe of disturbing appearances combines visions that question the viewer and invite him to become aware.
CHINA
WENHUAN SHAO – CAREER
Born in 1971 in Hetian, China. Lives in Hangzhou, China
Wenhuan Shao’s artistic creation mainly focuses on the theme of nature or enlightens the concept of nature, by approaching the essence of things from a temporal perspective.
He intends to create metaphysical art works through a “photography comprehensive painting”, principally using photography mixed with other medium.
Education
2002 – Studied as a graduate student at Integrated Painting Dept. of China Academy of Art.
2018 – Solo exhibitions
Beijing, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, “Perspectives in the Distance”
Hangzhou, The Roof Art Museum, “Whine Within Mirror”
Shanghai and New York, Han Feng Art Space, “Non-Mountain”
2018 Group exhibitions
Nanjing, Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, “Screen Refreshing Labor: Photography Exhibition 2018”
Beijing, China Millennium Monument, “International Academic Exhibition-Photo Beijing 2018”
Shanghai, Ke Art Museum, “Parallelism Shanghai-International Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition”
New York, China Institute Gallery, “Art of the Mountain”
Tianjin, Teda INGALLERY, “Meta image – International Photograph Exhibition”
Shanghai, Qing Art Space, “Land-Schaft”
Hongkong, Galerie Ora-Ora, “??.?? Sqm Open Sea”
Paris, Galerie Liusa Wang, “After Sunset”
Wenzhou, Epoch Art Museum, “Transcendence of Objective Image”
Suzhou, Han Shan Art Museum, “The Folded Mountain II”a
PERU
CAMILA RODRIGO & SMArt
Thus far, Camila Rodrigo’s projects have focused on the transformation of the geographic landscape of Lima, mainly its cliffs and the abrupt changes in the tides of the ocean around them. During her stay in the Swiss Alps, the artist discovered other landscapes, in which the stones are also witnesses of profound changes.
« You can read the time from a stone. The territory’s constant changes, unceasing movements, erosion and wearing away are written in its layers…
A monumental, fiercely vibrating landscape, which reverberates strength. It prevails over the new necessities of its human inhabitants. It adapts itself, changes, persists…
Photographs realized with expired film and stone installations, reveal an altered territory that suggests the beginning of a new ecological era. Breaking an already settled imaginary to dig further beyond the first impressions, delving into the subtle tracks of a coexistence prone to be increasingly vulnerable.
If we place humanity inside the huge matrix of nature some certainties are undermined; new questionings emerge.
The echo resounds, urging us to take a step forwards and to penetrate… »
Camila Rodrigo
PERU
CAMILA RODRIGO – CAREER
Born in 1983 – Live in Lima, Peru
The work of Liz Tasa revolves around social issues in Peru. She has developed several documentary projects that revolve around social exclusion, racism and human rights like forced sterilizations or the El Niño Phenomenon, both in Peru.
Based on a documentation work, the artwork of Liz Tasa poses a more sensory than a descriptive type of language. She usually works with a digital camera, LEDs and color photographs. Multimedia video as well as analog techniques such as the frames, technique of the artist Man Ray to make portraits, are also complementary medium of her work.
Education
Studied photography at “Centro de la Imagen” in Lima – Peru
2014 – Masters degree “Mal de foco” in Latin American Photography at “Centro de la Imagen”
2010 – Masters degree at Forma-Naba in Milan in Photography and Visual Arts
2010 – Chosen as a part of « Re generation: Photographers of tomorrow » by the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, finalist of the Lacoste Elysée prize that year
Exhibitions
Her projects have been exhibited in Arles, Amsterdam, Argentina, Chile, Barcelona, London, Lausanne, Lima, Mexico, Milan, Miami, New York, Ping Yao and other cities. Her work has been published in Chile, United States, Spain and Switzerland.
MONGOLIA
TAMIR BAYARSAIKHAN & SMArt
Who stands in the sun, projects shadows: such is the thought that inhabited Tamir Bayarsaikhan in his peregrinations across the Valais. He laid his artist’s look on every trace of human presence visible in the landscape. Whether our actions are felt as appropriate or aberrant, nature reacts to them at every moment, inevitably. The images collected by the Mongolian photographer are sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, sublimely calm, sometimes agitated, troubled, witnesses of dramatic events. An artwork similar to a Valaisan illustration of the famous « butterfly effect ».
MONGOLIA
TAMIR BAYARSAIKHAN – CAREER
Born in Ulaanbaatar in 1985 – Live in Ulaanbaatar
Tamir Bayarsaikhan has a background in multimedia graphic designer with a bachelor degree. He first started photography about 6 year ago and since been actively developing his skills. In 2013, he joined Mongolian first photographers’ community Tusgal club NGO. He is also one of the chair and founding members of BMA (We are Mongolian content) NGO, which recruited Mongolian top multimedia graphic designers.
Exhibitions
2018 – “Me+We” Start with yourself. Public graphic design poster exhibition. Creative poster design campaign and public advocacy on urban environmental issues.
2017 – “New people”, documentary joint photo exhibition
2017 – “Nature without garbage-Photography”, documentary joint photo exhibition
2017 – “Edge of Blue Heaven”, joint photo exhibition with Tusgal photo club
2017 – “Parallel Universe”, documentary joint photo exhibition with Tusgal photo club
MOROCCO
M’HAMMED KILITO & SMArt
During his residency in Sierre, M’hammed Kilito dealt with the theme of migration. Through his work he wanted to tackle the growing instrumentalization of fear towards the Other, the foreigner, in Valais, where 1 inhabitant out of 4 comes from emigration. He chose to highlight, through a reverse process, the relationship between Swiss and migrants: What happens when fear gives way to generosity, solidarity and humanism? »
Through the visual sociology approach that characterizes his work, he therefore questioned the political and social realities of migrants by producing three photographic series: the first presents exchanges of knowledge or shared knowledge between migrants and Swiss residents; the second tells the daily life of migrants through activities organized by the Intercultural Space of Sierre; the third focuses on objects and memories brought back by migrants, as well as their homes or places of work.
MOROCCO
M’HAMMED KILITO – CAREER
Born in Lvov, Russia in 1981 – Live in Rabat, Morocco
M’hammed Kilito’s photography is part of the tradition of visual sociology, where he uses the image as a research tool to better understand a given social reality.His photographic work focuses on the small details of everyday life that can provide information on the general situation of today’s Morocco. The observation of everyday life, the encounters he makes and the stories he is told inspire him and open him the field on socio-political issues such as the contrasts between social strata, the standardization of cultures, migration, identity or social determinism.
Education
2012 – Master’s degree in Political Science, University of Ottawa
2010 – Honors degree in Political Science, Montreal university
2006 – Portfolio Program, Ottawa School of Art
Group exhibitions
2017 – Selection of photographies, Palais Selman, Marrakech
2017 – Art Company / Episodes 2, Intimes – Errances, Casablanca
2017 – Youmein Festival, Technopark, Tangier
2017 – Images passagères, Rétine argentique, Marseille
2017 – Open Studio, Printemps de l’Art Contemporain, La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille
2017 – Les hommes défendent l’égalité en héritage, Galerie Fan-Dok, Rabat
2017 – Errances, Festival Rabat Résonances, Dar El-Mrini, Rabat
2017 – Génération Flash, Fondation Alliances, Casablanca
2017 – Les journées photographiques de Taza, Complexe culturel, Taza
2017 – PULP exhibition, Fotofilmic gallery, Vancouver
Solo exhibition
2017 – Destiny, French Institute, Rabat
Art residencies
2017 – Youmein Festival, Tanger
2017 – La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille
2017 – Al-Qarawiyyin, Fez
CHINA
XIAOYI CHEN & SMArt
During her three-month residency, Xiaoyi Chen discovered erratic blocks during a walk in the forest. These large rock masses, some of which are the size of houses, have been transported by rivers of ice and placed in dominant positions in glacial valleys or scattered over hills and plains. They bear witness to the glacier degradation that we can still observe today. Fascinated by the monumentality of these mysterious blocks, the photographer wishes to restore through her photography and videos the timeless power that they release.
The stranger… and while I blossomed all alone, the world slumbered
CHINA
XIAOYI CHEN – CAREER
Born in Sichuan in 1992 – Live in Chengdu
Her recent work focuses on the combination of photography and printmaking, also multi-materials, video and installation; those combination of techniques are used to explore beneath the surface of things by simplifying and abstracting; an approach aimed at reviving spiritual awareness and intuition before entering the symbolic nature of what we view.
Education
2014 – University of the Arts London – London College of Communication / MA Photography
2013 – International Gemological Institute / Polished Diamond Grader P.D.G
2010 – 2013 – University of Leeds Met / BSc (HONS) Photographic Journalism
Awards
2017 – Named one of Asia’s 30 Artists under 30 by Forbes magazine.
2015 – Three Shadows Photography Award, China’s most prestigious photography prize
2014 – LCC/Photofusion Prize
Solo exhibitions
2017 – “Never!” on A Thousand Plateaus Art Space in China
2017 – “One Giant leap” on Materia Gallery in Italy
Group exhibitions
2017 – Kyoto Asia Corridor Art Exhibition of Culture city of East Asia in Kyoto
2016 – Chinese Photobooks on Photobook Week Aarhus
2016 – Recent Art Fairs, include Photo Shanghai and Paris Asian Art Fair and solo project in London Art Fair in 2017
2015 – Participation in many exhibitions: the Format International Photography Festival, Kassel Photobook Festival, Athens Photo Festival and the group show China 8 at Museum Folkwang (Germany), The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale(Japan) and Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival
COLOMBIA
JORGE PANCHOAGA & SMArt
“There are some realities lying under the surface of what we observe. Truths that lift up out of the blue, as a sea monster which rises to the surface and then disappears. Entering this unknown world is a way to me to tempt these monsters to emerge, it’s like building a bridge these creatures can get through to what is real and familiar to us. This beautiful space, where imagination and reality meet, is where love, tears and happiness exist. This is the place. This is where we live.”
Nick Cave
Nature exists. To arrange it and give it a sense for our aims is something arising from the needs and the experiences we have chosen as masters. Adjustment is mutual—nature largely lives for us, we model it and it equally models us. Whoever visit the Verzasca Valley is exposed to all what nature and human being recount us. The story depends on who guides us, on what we find along the path—to imagine the future changes, to remember the past scenarios, to create a mirror between our fears and calm.
Jorge Panchoaga walked through these passages into the night darkness. In them he tried to build a bridge to the unknown, towards those things the path didn’t tell him, towards what the men’s words didn’t say: the untamed, the savage. He put the incomprehensible aspect of nature over the human landscape, creating a new possible scenario where the human being faces what he doesn’t know, where we have to try again to understand, and to win the battle against an apparently indomitable entity.
A confrontation, where we go back to being small, as small as any other animal. And in this new scenario we get captured by nature once again.
COLOMBIA
JORGE PANCHOAGA – CAREER
Born in Popayán, Cauca in 1984 – Live in Bogota, Colombia
Graduated in Anthropology, University of Cauca, and specialized in Photography in the National University of Colombia.
His work is part of collections such as the Swiss culture fund in Colombia, the photography collection of Higashikawa Japan and various private collections. It’s been published in international media such as the New York Times, National Geographic, Süddeutsche Zeitung, L’oeil de la Photographie, El País Spain, El Malpensante.
He has held solo and collective exhibitions in Spain, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Ireland, Ecuador, France, Germany and Colombia.
Education
From 2018 – Master of Photo Documentary at Centro de la Imagen, Lima, Peru
2012 – Communication at the University of Piura, Peru
Prizes and achievements
2017 – Nominated World Press Photo Latin America Masterclass
2017 – Second place in POY LATAM “Nuestra mirada” category
2016 – Winner of the Emerging Talent Award of Lens Culture
2015 – Winner of the Ibero-American Photography Prize NEXOFOTO, Spain
Winner of the creation grant for artists with intermediate trajectory of the Culture Ministry of Colombia
The IX National Colombo Swiss Prize of Photography of the Culture Ministry
Grantee of the Pedro Meyer Foundation studying the Photonarrative and new media diploma
Co-founder of the photography group + 1 and CROMA Taller Visual
COLOMBIA
JUAN ARIAS & SMArt
A few months before starting his residency in Sierre, as part of the SMArt program, the Colombian photographer Juan Arias read an article from Le Nouvelliste that caught his attention: « A wolf killed in the Val d’Anniviers. She was the victim of an act of poaching.” Juan Arias immediately grasped the scope of this incident and chose to treat our relationship to the wolf through a series of photographs that walk between history, return of the wolf in Valais and projection in the future.
His work brings us back to centuries of cultural representations and projections of our fears. For him, our relationship to the wolf reveals our connection to nature and its uncontrollable dimension, which opposes the project of modernity based on a search for absolute control of time, the nature of man, through the cult of progress. In the work of Juan Arias, the wolf is also revealing changes in society that operate in Valais: cultural and identity changes, on the one hand, especially under the influence of migratory flows that mix Valais, but also economic or structural changes , especially through the transformation of practices related to the territory and livestock.
Juan Arias creates thus an extremely ambitious project that consists in a certain way of proposing a « radiography » of the contemporary Valaisan society, revealing his fears, his antagonisms, his preoccupations, through an anthropological gaze taking the wolf as red thread.
COLOMBIA
JUAN ARIAS – CAREER
Born in 1979, live in Cali, Colombia
Juan Arias’ main approach and interest is in creating images related on representations, archetypes and underlying, often not said, aspects of human relationships. His method is to work on metaphors that lead to further reflections by the viewer.
Education
2017 – El subconsciente en la fotografía – México
2016 – Geografías disidentes – Instituto Departamental de Bellas Artes – Colombia
2016 – Taller Fotolibro – Croma Taller Visual
2016 – Taller Lenguaje Personal en Fotografía – Croma Taller Visual
2015 – Taller Cámara – Universidad del Valle
2008 – Imagen I y II – Universidad del Valle
Prizes and achievements
2017 – Co-creator of La Escena exhibition at Museo La Tertulia
2015 – Third Place Project at I Encuentro de Narrativas Visuales Fujifulm
2014 – Co-founder of photography colective www.calidoscopio.co
Solo exhibitions
2016 – Mito (me too) – FotoUrbe 2016 – Ciudad Latente, Pereira
2016 – V.A.N.L – Lugar a Dudas, Cali
Group exhibitions
2016 – III Bienal Internacional de Muralismo y Arte Público, Cali
2016 – Re exiones sobre la Paz – Fotomeraki
2015 – Cuerpos de Luz – RíoEstudio, Cali
PERU
SHARON CASTELLANOS & SMArt
During her stay in Valais, Sharon Castellanos is initially impressed by the distance that seems to lie between people and their environment. It is as if the mountains of Valais had been instrumentalized for economic purposes. From this first realization, a series of pictures is created, that focus on the idea of the frontier: people who view the landscape through a window, guard rails, which form a boundary between the street and the abyss, ropes where you can hold onto. ..
Sharon Castellanos, however, knows that her first impression does not fully illuminate reality. In her search for people who have found their way back to nature, she meets herbalists. A second series of photographs, which gives an insight into the work and the everyday life of the herbalists and gives an insight into their philosophy of life: positive energy, harmony and balance are their guiding principles.
The exhibition « Symbiosis » indicates that the coexistence of people with nature can take on different forms, with Sharon Castellano focusing on the two extremes – distanced-instrumentalized on the one hand, respectfully and intimately on the other.
PERU
SHARON CASTELLANOS – CAREER
Born in 1989 in Lima, Peru – Live in Cusco, Peru
Part of Sharon Castellanos’ work chases the intention to transfigure situations through documentary photography, avoiding showing reality as evidence. Her work is evocative and explores the representation to be seen from the imagination and even fantasy. The themes are connected with her own exploration in the mountains, daily rural life and the manifestation of nature.
Education
With a formation background divided between photography workshops and graphic design studies, she worked four years as a photojournalist in a local media. Currently, she is a freelance photographer.
Prizes and achievements
2016 – Selected participant, The New York Times Portfolio Review, USA
2016 – Portfolio presentation, Bronx Documentary Center, New York, USA
2016 – Finalist, Scholarship Roberto Villagraz, EFTI, Spain
2016 – Honorable mention, Scholarship MAPA, Lens Escuela de Artes Visuales, Spain
2014 – Third place, Espacio Tiempo 2014, Peru
2013 – Finalist, Red Bull Illume 2013, Lifestyle category, Austria
LEBANON
HASAN SHAABAN & SMArt
Having chosen to focus his work on the theme of water and energy, Hasan Shabaan went to explore production sites and reservoirs. Overcoming the difficulties of accessing these places during winter, he visited Grande Dixence and Emosson. He also managed to slip into the hidden spaces of the Lavey, Bieudron and Saint-Léonard hydroelectric plants.
The concept behind the huge dams of the Valais is to store water from melting glaciers, in order to provide for increased consumption in the drier winter months. But what is the connection between the lakes, the towering concrete « cliffs » and the electric power that we use every day? Through his photographs, Hasan Shaaban examines the phenomenal energy reserve represented by these complex facilities, and the mysterious alchemy that transforms hydraulic power into electricity.