Rolex Learning Center
Exhibition from October 24 to November 24
Opening event: Wednesday October 23 at 6:00 pm
Every year, EPFL’s culture and arts team commemorates the fact that the Rolex Learning Center was dreamt up by Japanese architects. This fall, photographer Olivier Christinat presents twenty-seven photographs taken in Japanese cities.
Commanding views onto street-life and games played in apartment complex courtyards; urban scenes captured with a telephoto lens that compresses dimensions, piling up buildings that seem to extend into eternity; sharp, crisp faces lost in crowds at subway stations. These three series have a point in common: by “unframing” our vision, they bring us closer to the heart of the city while keeping it at a distance. Olivier Christinat shoots his subjects from afar, yet captures their intimacy. Distance and proximity lean on each other. The spatial and visual experiences he creates extend our senses beyond our own bodies. Through these images, our eyes embrace Japanese cities.
Olivier Christinat has been practicing a form of art photography that uses photographic technique as an essential artistic medium. He has presented his work in Switzerland (Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Centre Pasquart, Bienne, Centre Saint-Gervais, Genève), Belgium (Centre d’art contemporain, Hasselt), Canada (Photography Month, Montréal), the United States, France, and Japan, and has received numerous awards. His latest work recently earned him the Rado Prize (Journée photographiques, Bienne, 2013).
He lives in Lausanne and teaches at the CFPAA (Centre Formation Professionnelle Arts Appliqués) in Geneve.