Sites & Signs

Sites & Signs is the first comprehensive monograph on the photographic work of Georg Aerni

Educated as an architect, the Swiss photographer Georg Aerni (*1959) naturally gravitated toward subjects of architecture, urban space, and the design of landscapes in his art. An extraordinary care and attention to craft is inherent in all of his body of work, which includes architectural photography taken in Paris, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and most recently Mumbai, as well as recent series in the Alps and various European zoos. With precision and subtle colorfulness, Aerni's images allow the viewer to understand a city or landscape as a space of signs, which, although deserted, reveal a great deal about social conditions and our time. His photographs find those signs that characterize the mood of both urban structures and landscapesa mood that is created by humans.

Sites & Signs is the first comprehensive monograph on Georg Aerni's work. Included alongside the photos are essays by Stephan Berg, Moritz Küng, and Nadine Olonetzky that consider Aerni's work in the context of contemporary photography, and on images of architecture and landscapes. Documenting one of the most interesting positions in contemporary Swiss artistic and architectural photography, Sites & Signs will provoke a captivating dialogue between photographers, urban planners, and architects.

Sites & Signs won a silver medal in the 2012 German Photo Book Award.

«Man beugt sich als Betrachter ganz intensiv über diese detailreichen Bilder und wird dabei zum stillen, staunenden Weltreisenden.» Aus dem Jurytext Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 2012

«Aerni misst mit ruhigem Blick einen von ihm gewählten Schauplatz aus, nach Möglichkeit frontal, nach Möglichkeit Gegensätzliches mit einem Blick vereinend. Von der Analyse zur Synthese und zum tafelbildschönen Dokument scharf, detailreich, verzerrungsfrei.» Angelika Maass, Der Landbote

«Sites & Signs von Georg Aerni ist ein wunderbar gedrucktes Fotobuch, das die Stadtfotografien des Schweizers umfassend vorstellt.» Marc Peschke, www.photoscala.de

«Ein grossartiges Buch, das nicht nur hervorragende Fotos zeigt, sondern zudem auch noch zurückhaltend, aber überzeugend gestaltet ist.» Damian Zimmermann, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

«Zurich-based photographer Georg Aerni's debut monograph subtly explores environmental transformations in areas both urban and rural, from a Hong Kong skyscraper to a Swiss golf course.» Surface

«Aernis Bilder sind auch ein spannender Beitrag zur Debatte über den angeblichen Stadt-Land-Gegensatz in der Schweiz.» Stefan von Bergen, Berner Zeitung

«Sorgfältig ausgewählt, zusammengestellt. Mittels vieler Ausklappseiten werden die Panoramen der Metropolen in fantastischer Weise visualisiert.» Gregor Auenhammer, Der Standard

«Snap shot: parfait anonyme pour qualifier la photographie de Georg Aerni un travail d'une précision, d'une ob¬session et d'une inspiration qui conta¬minent.» le phare

«Yet sometimes it does not matter to have more information than what can be seen on the photograph. This was my experience with the photographs in Georg Aerni's Sites & Signs. I did not wonder what my eyes were showing me, I simply enjoyed the compositions, and the colours and felt fascinated what they did to me I felt entranced, and I felt calm.» Hans Durrer, durrer-intercultural.blogspot.com

«Bemerkenswert schön.» DBZ Deutsche Bauzeitschrift

Autorentext

Georg Aerni, born 1959 and educated in Winterthur (Switzerland), has graduated as an architect at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He lives and works as a self-educated photographer in Zurich. His photographic work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in various museums and private galleries in Switzerland and also in solo exhibitions in Berlin, Barcelona and Paris. He is also represented in public and corporate art collections in Switzerland. [See also www.georgaerni.ch]Nadine Olonetzky, born 1962 and educated in Zurich, is a freelance publicist and editor with special expertise in photography. Stephan Berg, born 1959 in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), has been director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn (Germany) since 2008. Moritz Kung, born 1961, trained as interior design draftsman in Zurich before studying interior design at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and later art history at the University of Brussels. He has been curator of the exhibition program at deSingel, Internationale Kunstcampus in Antwerp (Belgium) since 2002. Moritz Kung, born 1961, trained as interior design draftsman in Zurich before studying interior design at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (1984-88) and later art history at the University of Brussels Brussel (1995-97). He has been working a freelance curator in Brussels and will take over as director the new Canodrom Contenmporary Arts Centre in Barcelona in 2011.

Klappentext

Der Schweizer Künstler Georg Aerni (*1959) ist bekannt für seine Fotoserien von Grossstädten und Landschaften. Ob Hongkong, Paris, Tokio oder Mumbai, ob Gletscher in den Alpen, Trimm-Dich-Pfade oder zoologische Gehege: Aerni, der 1980-1986 Architektur an der ETH Zürich studierte, bis 1992 als Architekt arbeitete und sich dann der Fotografie zuwandte, fokussiert in seiner präzisen Arbeit auf die durch den Menschen gestalteten Lebensräume. Diese erste umfassende Monografie präsentiert eine grosse Auswahl aus Georg Aernis Fotoserien sowie das vollständige Werkverzeichnis, kommentiert von Essays zum künstlerischen Umfeld und zur Qualität von Aernis eigenständigen Fotografien.