Beat Streuli

GAM Turin
Through November 5

Swiss artist Beat Streuli doesn’t employ the spectacular means favored by American photography, so aggressive and myth destroying. His imagery doesn’t pass critical judgement, taking an objective stance instead. Streuli always depicts faces which, in his own words, he considers “the most interesting and important thing to look at.” Taking subjects from the anonymity of the contemporary metropolis, his photos are the product of fleeting impressions, not re-elaborated concepts. In fact, the artist works without any preconceptions or desire to place his subjects within social categories.

Streuli created eighty-nine half-bust portraits for this exhibition at the GAM which assume the form of adverts. Taken in Turin, East Jerusalem, Yamaguchi and Enghiem-Les-Bains these large-scale color photos offer images of very different cultural contexts. The exhibition is set out following a ‘random’ pattern, involving the spectator in a game of reconstruction and interpretation. For his portraits of Turin locals, the artist chose people wandering around the town center and the Porta Palazzo market place. One of the city’s most characteristic haunts, this is a place where different ethnic groups meet and mingle.



The exhibition’s subtitle, La bella estate, was inspired by Cesare Pavese’s famous novel. In it he tells the story of some children from Turin who offer to become artists’ models. Strouth’s initial scheme was, in fact, to photograph exclusively adolescents. During the course of the project, however, he changed his mind and included people of varying ages. The result is a high-impact installation, accentuated by the chromatic contrasts which lend a three dimensional perspective to the image.




Tiziana Conti
Translation by Rosalind Furness