13-18 juin 2023

For its first participation to Photo Basel, Galerie S. would like to showcase the work of Ester Vonplon through two of her latest series :

DIESSEITS, 2019
Leaves, flowers and stems cast blue shadows. Ester Vonplon’s herbarium is a collection of fragile, almost unnoticed objects that have been rescued from transience. These plants were exposed to the sun on photosensitive paper, where they left their mark.
In large format, the works gain a strong iconic presence. In Ester Vonplon’s practice, pho- tography becomes a poet’s tool. The artist is interested in the willpower of photographic materials. She experiments with photosensitive paper from 1907, which shows an unex- pected reaction due to the aging process.

I SEE DARKNESS, 2020-on going

In the darkness of the disused Aclatunnel, Ester Vonplon exposed analogue photo paper with the available light. Since the lockdown was pronounced in March 2020 and we were restricted in our accustomed mobility, the artist began to work intensively in the disused tunnel, which was once the entrance to the Safien Valley and which has been declared a nature reserve since 1997.

She used this remote place to experiment with time, chemistry and the given circums- tances. The starting point for the relocation of her studio in the tunnel was last year’s “Art- safiental”.