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`The Grand Tour`
exhibition at Fotomuseum Winterthur, the dam of Mauvoisin and the Musée de Bagnes in Le Châble, CH, June - September, 2015
curator: Thomas Seelig, co-director Fotomuseum Winterthur

`The Grand Tour, Kasia Klimpel’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland, comprises a
series of photos on view at the Mauvoisin Dam as well as an exhibition at the Musée
de Bagnes, located some 20 kilometers further down the Val de Bagnes, in the village
of Le Châble. The exhibition in the 17th century building, the former rectory of the
village, contextualizes the project exhibited at the dam and shows additional recent
works by the artist.

Spanning the 520 meters across a natural gorge and towering 250 meters high, the
arched, concrete dam of Mauvoisin was built in the 1950s to generate electricity
and prevent floods. Klimpel’s “landscapes” are presented on the curved crest of the
massive construction. Her images are photographs of collages made to depict landscapes.
Placed next to these images are screenshots of Google Maps, which zoom in
on the parts of the digital map where Klimpel inserted her landscapes by assigning
them geographical coordinates.

Both the dam and Klimpel’s work visualize the tension between the natural landscape
and technocultural artifacts. As an architectural landmark, an icon inserted in the
natural alpine landscape, the dam transforms, tames and makes use of the natural
dynamics of the Val de Bagnes, monumentally forcing its concrete structure between
the rocks. In contrast, Klimpel’s photographs comment on how images of landscapes
are constructed, mediated and distributed in an online setting. In different ways and
through distinct materialities both the dam and the images show how humans come
to terms with the landscapes that they encounter — and both do so by juxtaposing
artificiality with nature. Whereas the dam does so by means of its physical presence
in the Val de Bagnes, in Klimpel’s work the tension is addressed on the level of representation.
Moreover, both confront how human-built infrastructures — such as the
engineering of the dam as well as the Google platform — transform our perception of
the landscape.`

Excerpt from: `Ghosts on Tour. Kasia Klimpel’s Landscapes and the World of Google ` by Melanie Bühler in: `The Grand Tour`, 2015, Roma Publications 242, Amsterdam

Installation view `The Grand Tour`, situation#15 at Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

Installation view of ´The Grand Tour´ exhibition at Mauvoisin Dam, Switzerland, June 20- September 6 2015

Installation view of ´The Grand Tour´ exhibition at Mauvoisin Dam, Switzerland, June 20- September 6 2015, photo © Studio Bonnardot