In collaboration with Museum Folkwang, Essen, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Fotostiftung Schweiz

The exhibition, in copartnership with the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the Fotostiftung and the Fotomuseum in Winterthur, shows the full chronology of Burkhard’s career, from his early, mainly documentary, photographs from the 1960s, to the vast natural and urban landscapes of the beginning of the new millennium. Burkhard’s images sit between these two extremes, documenting the international art scene (next to the curator Harald Szeemann), the shots taken with his colleague Markus Raetz, printed on large emulsified canvas, and the bodies reproduced in such large format that they become architectural elements or landscapes. Burkhard’s research expresses his wish to re-establish the creative role of photography in an age in which traditional artistic techniques are challenged by the increasing use of installations and performances that he himself documented. These works aspire to break away from easy-to-handle formats and traditional allocations. We are not standing before simple images – here is a totally new way of conceiving the art of photography, and the large, versatile spaces of the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana provide the ideal context.