It is often the case that our perceptions of contemporary architecture are not based on impressions that we obtain on site; instead, they are mediated by images. In a society which, as a result of the "iconic turn", is influenced more by images than by text, photography takes on decisive significance, also in the mediation of architecture.
The exhibition BUILDING IMAGES is conceived as a panorama of the last 25 years of Swiss architecture. Iconic buildings which have contributed to the worldwide success of Swiss construction are presented – not by means of plans and models, but solely via the medium of photography. Here, artists such as Hans Danuser, Thomas Ruff, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Jeff Wall enter into a dialog with the architectural photography of Iwan Baan, Heinrich Helfenstein, Walter Mair and Dominique Marc Wehrli. However, rather than limiting itself to stringing together exemplary photographs, the presentation also sheds light on the mediatisation of architecture, in an analytical section. The posters on the columns address historical and contemporary aspects of architectural photography and, last but not least, the question of how the photographic image is holding up in the age of the ‘iconic turn’. Considerations such as these are taken up in a series of video interviews with architects and architectural photographers in the last room of the exhibition.
