Peter Pfrunder (born 1959, Singapore) lives and works in Zug and Winterthur, Switzerland. He studied literature in Zurich, Berlin, and Montpellier, receiving his doctorate in 1988. Until 1998, he worked as a freelance journalist, author, and exhibition curator. Since 1998, he has served as Director and Curator of the Fotostiftung Schweiz/Swiss Foundation for Photography, Winterthur. Among his recent publications figure Gotthard Schuh. Une approche amoureuse, Göttingen, 2009; Swiss Photobooks from 1927 to the Present – A Different History of Photography, Baden, 2011; Adieu la Suisse ! Construction et déconstruction d'un mythe photographique, Paris, 2012; Unfamiliar Familiarities. Outside Views on Switzerland, Winterthur/Lausanne/Zurich, 2017.
Pfrunder curated the theme exhibition of Lianzhou Foto Festival 15th edition (2019). Entitled “A chance for the Unpredictable”, it brings together over seventy international artists whose selected works pay homage to photography and explore the uncontrollable aspects that leave traces in an image. On this occasion, he kindly answered our questions. Marine Cabos-Brullé: How did you come to collaborate with Lianzhou Foto Festival?
How did you come to collaborate with Lianzhou Foto Festival?
The starting point was an historical exhibition with a Swiss photographer who worked in China in the 1930s: Walter Bosshard [1892-1975]. It was in 2015. The reason why I came here was because Duan Yuting [Founder of Lianzhou Foto Festival] had visited us in Winterthur, and I showed her the Bosshard archive. I was always waiting for the moment to share these images with Chinese experts, because it tells about the possibility to look from the other side, to look onto a story that you think you know but you discover you don’t really know.
From that moment on, I have been collaborating with Duan. We decided to set up an exhibition in Lianzhou as it is very different to make an exhibition about this archive here than in Switzerland. It was the first time Bosshard’s works were exhibited in China. The reaction was very strong. People reacted quite emotionally. I think it is because there are not many archives that tell this history in such a complex way. Generally speaking the Chinese audience knows quite a lot about the 1930s, but only from one side. So it’s fascinating to see different perceptions of reality.
The project around the Bosshard archive is still going on. I just opened an exhibition at Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing ["Walter Bosshard / Robert Capa–The Race for China", 29 October 2019 – 3 May 2020]. This is a modified version of the exhibition we had in Lianzhou, with a new concept and different images. Previously, I had organized two more exhibitions with the Walter Bosshard archive, but they were heavily censored. And the following step was to produce an exhibition in Winterthur, while keeping in mind the results of this encounter with China. In fact I developed a much better understanding of Bosshard's photographs, so I did something new.
I also wanted to add Robert Capa [1913-1954] because they had been together in China at the same time. Capa’s photographs come from the International Center of Photography collection [in New York]. That was an important opening to Bosshard’s vision. I think they both did something unique in China. Besides, for the first time in China, people were able to see vintage prints. Their appreciation of photography and photographic material still has to be build up.
I think this exhibition is in the good place. It is a privileged venue for building up knowledge, and the question of censorship could be managed differently through their relation to the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education. There were very intense discussions about what worked and what didn’t, and for the first time I was able to follow the controversial interpretations of the images. There were three rounds of discussions, and every single image was examined during the censorhip procedure. I think nobody has looked so closely at these photographs.
In truth, Duan was the first to open the field for me in China. Since she is well connected, I had the occasion to meet important people. It made me realise that the photography scene – even in this huge country – is relatively small. The key figures all know each other. I was positively surprised to meet brilliant people here coming from far away. In the end, the point is not only to bring something to China, but to create a platform for real exchange and understanding.
Which works in your theme exhibition in Lianzhou would best describe the concept of unpredictable?
When Duan asked me to propose a theme, it was only April this year, so quite late, and I hesitated for a while. By chance I had the book of Alex Hanimann on my desk. It is called “Trapped”. This series had always fascinated me, but I didn’t know why. Thinking about the possible themes, I wanted to find out what is the special aspect of this book, the secret that could lead me to a contemporary vision of photography.
Two things emerged. First, the idea of being trapped in a situation where you cannot escape. What happens here is similar, and it is even stronger because semi-automatic cameras – triggered by animals’ movements – took the pictures. These authorless images intrigued me, they prompted me to relate to these animals looking at me in a strange way. As an observer you feel like trapped yourself. Obviously, there is a metaphorical dimension in the photographs, connected to our experience with control and surveillance.
Second, I thought about the question of the accidental, when you capture more that you intended to. When you start to think about it historically, you have many examples in the history of photography, in which the camera can see things that the human eye cannot see. Photography can bring you to new knowledge, new options to see the world. Then I started to do research about this topic. I tried to open it up because it would have been boring to have the same type of images. I discovered it is a very rich topic, in which you can bring in a lot of approaches that all reflect this notion of unpredictable.
I also wanted to do something relevant to China. So the first title was “Beyond Control”, which on the one hand alludes to the fact that the camera controls something but the image is not controlled anymore. On the other hand, I was referring to the society and Chinese reality that is getting more and more controlled. But it was quite clear that "Beyond Control" would be too provocative as a title . So finally I chose “A Chance for the Unpredictable”, because this refers to the medium of photography, and at the same time questions all the private, social and political control systems that we set up today.
How about Ji Zhou’s works, how do they fit within this concept?
Ji Zhou offers a Chinese position within this system. He lets things happen in his works. I like the material approach of his works, which is actually part of quite a few positions in this group exhibition. His approach is trying to bring out the photographic as something that is not defined from the beginning. The image itself is a process that leads to a result, which you don’t know when you start the project. He combines the spatial and the temporal aspects together by shooting the same situation at different moments of the day, and synchronises the different stages of this situation into one. By combining these different layers, he creates something you couldn’t see in reality. Photography opens a new vision of this piece of reality.
You mentioned earlier Bosshard’s photographic archive, which is part of the Swiss Foundation for Photography’s collection. Could you tell us more about this archive?
Bosshard worked in different places in Asia, including China were he stayed from 1931 to 1939 and then again in 1947. His archive encompasses a huge body of work that he donated to our institution through friends in the late 1970s. Interestingly, even before I became director, one of my first exhibitions I did for the foundation was with Bossard’s photographs in 1997. Back then I already felt I needed some kind of Chinese expertise. But later on I had many new projects and I forgot about this archive until the moment when Duan arrived.
Bossard’s archive is mostly composed of thousands of middle and small format negatives on roll films, and only a few glass negatives. The Chinese part is certainly the most important, it represents 8000 negatives. Very few prints are left because of a fire that destroyed a large portion of his archive. Another reason why there is little left is because he was a correspondent for foreign agencies, newspapers and magazines. So these companies kept most of the material. Still the negatives themselves already offer a strong body of work.
The first exhibition I did about him was new prints from negatives. For the second round, I conducted more research especially in press archives, such as in the Ullstein archive in Berlin, his main contractor at that time. I found about 500 prints there, from which I have included a substantial selection in the current exhibition in Beijing. Bossard also worked for Black Star Agency in the United States. There is a lot more material in this archive, which his now in Toronto. I would like to pursue research on him in the future.
What is the role of a material archive in today’s digital world?
The status of images is changing dramatically. Today we all look at our images on screens. Photography has become something very fluid, fast, appearing and disappearing again, utterly immaterial. The reaction to this fluidity is to find some kind of stability in the image, like a relief that something stays. The interest for the material archive also mirrors a desire to think about photography in an historical development, not just something that pops up today. Once you start to think about this history, it makes things more interesting, more relevant in a way. That’s the background to this desire to come back to the material.
Furthermore, the analog archive represents slowness. When you have a film of twelve negatives, you think beforehand what you want to do, you are not just taking images. We feel that we loose something if we only rely on the digital. Yet it’s not a simple opposition between digital and analogue. The point is to rediscover the quality of the material, and some of the artists found beautiful ways to combine the digital and analogue in this exhibition.
Who are the Chinese artists you would like to work with?
I would like to work with many but it would be wrong to tell a name now. I am quite sure after this project there will be new ones. I am building up a network and having worked with a couple a Chinese artists in this exhibition I am quite sure there will be something coming up.
How would you describe Lianzhou Foto Festival in a few words?
I think it’s a festival that strives for quality. I like the way they bring new ideas. Sometimes it’s experimental but it unveils a professional and serious interest for exploring photography in different aspects.
What’s next for you?
We have to develop the Swiss Foundation for Photography a bit more. I need some time to think about how we organize ourselves in these changing times, with the digital and the analogue. The chore of our collection is analogue archives, from mostly the twentieth century onwards. We are at the moment when many photographers are getting old, and they are looking for a place for their analogue archives to be preserved. We try to stay quite open to donations, but we need to adapt our structure, to get more people and more money to deal with it. It’s overwhelming what comes upon us now. So we are trying to find a new structure – or a better structure – to keep pace with what is happening.
Moreover, I want to work on another archive with a woman Swiss photographer who is still living. We are trying to bring in the knowledge together before she passes away. It will allow us to understand better her archive, and to start thinking about a book or an exhibition.
More information:Lianzhou Foto FestivalA Chance for the UnpredictableNovember 30, 2019 - January, 3 2019www.lianzhoufoto.com
Fotostiftung Schweiz (Swiss Foundation for Photography) www.fotostiftung.ch
