DOC! Photo Magazine | SELF-PORTRAIT, SELF-SURVEILLANCE, around photographs by Urs Lüthi and Mia Gourvitch.

Publication Text

Sep 1

Published in DOC! PHOTO MAGAZINE VOL. Q11 #47

SELF-PORTRAIT / SELF-SURVEILLANCE

(extract)

An overwhelming presence contrasting a profuse absence; whimsical and intimate scenes versus profound emptiness - the selected works of artists Urs Lüthi and Mia Gourvitch employ different signifiers and forms.

At a closer look, something changes: elements begin resonating, intentions meet.

The proposed mise en scene intrigues through the repeating element of the self-portrait. Urs Lüthi, a master of the genre, utilizes his body as his main and recurring topic throughout his oeuvre, whereas Mia Gourvitch points the camera lens away from herself, capturing and shaping external views. Questioning the semantics of the self, Gourvitch nonetheless names one of the photographs from the 2015 series Layover Dreams — Self-portrait, giving the viewer the key to a new intimate, personal and private space within her work.

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