East Wing
Photo London 2017

For Immediate Release
East Wing at Photo London / Booth C-2

Cortis & Sonderegger
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Somerset House, London
18 – 21 May 2017

Jojakim Cortis & Adrian Sondereger work collectively to conceive and manufacture their
surreal worlds; focusing on re-fabricating monumental moments from history in miniture, while questioning the temporal nature of experience and memory.

Studying each original image in detail, the artists meticulously mimic similar methods in their studio. Using scale models; paying close attention to original lighting and vantage point of the camera the artists attempting to literally ‘re-make’ events ranging from the crash of the Hindenburg and the supersonic passenger jet, Concorde, to the last photograph of the Titanic and the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima. The series also includes remakes of Henri Cartier Bresson, William Eggleston, Man Ray, Ansel Adams and Andreas Gursky.

By taking a stepped back vantage point, Cortis & Sonderegger reveal their studio and working methods, exposing the ‘backstage’ of their craft. With this frame they leave the viewer in an unbalanced reality between the original memorized photographs from the past and their remake in the present.

Their aim is not to mislead the viewer – instead, they wish to fully expose their staging process in order to raise questions about the temporal nature of experience and memory. The relationship between chance and photography also comes into question. How does one contemplate reenactments of a one in a million ‘chance moment’ when it is transformed meticulously into a staged reproduction, leaving nothing to chance?

A special book signing with Mandy Barker of her new publication "Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals" will also take place in the East Wing both on Saturday the 20th & 21st May (http://photolondon.org/event/mandy-barker-beyond-drifting-imperfectly-known-animals-east-wing/)

For more information, contact Elie Domit at: elie@east-wing.org
www.east-wing.org