Paper, coton, sugar, flour, coffee. Dominique Teufen uses whatever she can find to construct images that will surprise her.
On the screen of her copy machine, she arranges ingredients from daily life and does not hesitate to pick up from her trash a piece of plastic or paper, and burns it meticulously. She folds up surfaces, plays with volume, lowers or lifts her machine’s lid, varies the lighting and starts up the copier by pushing a button, just like a camera shutter release. Her entry produces landscapes that remind us of mountains of her native country Switzerland, but they are not. Born in Davos in 1975, the artist, who lives and works in Zurich, does not try to reproduce nor preview an image. She instead lets herself be guided by the materials and plays with the machine to compose her imaginary landscapes. “Photography is not used as a way to make reality as precise as possible, but as a way to dupe us and question our certainties”, says Stefano Stoll, the artistic advisor of the 24th edition of the HSBC prize that Dominique Teufen just won, side by side with Nuno Andrade. This portfolio can be found in Fisheye #35.
Dominique Teufen and Nuno Andrade, winners of the prize HSBC 2019
From May 10th to May 18th 2019
Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière,
51, rue de Saint-Louis-en-l’Île, Paris 4e
This article can be found in Fisheye #35, in newsstands and available here.
© Dominique Teufen
