Fabrice Gygi represented Switzerland in the 25th International Biennale of São Paulo in 2002, and made this artist's book to accompany his monumental installation there. The inside front and back covers of the book show sketches for the surveillance tower that he erected in the center of the Biennale Pavillion. After that, the connection between the book and the sculptural project becomes more abstract. Common Ground collects photographs shot by the artist during a trip he made to Northern Canada in the winter of 1990-91. Immediately after the film was processed, he stacked the negatives in a press and drilled a hole through them. In the photographs printed from these negatives, the drill hole creates an agressive and ominous black presence in the frigid landscapes they depict. The black and white images are intercut with pull out color photographs of Gygi's installation work, itself equally ominous in its evocation of pervasive urban "security" systems.
Published by JRP|Ringier
Softcover, 18 x 12 cm, 104 p.
ISBN : 978-2-940271-14-6