Appetite for the Magnificent
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, Zurich
This series reflects the aesthetic character of high-end aquaria curated by Swiss aquarists. Concentrating on the flat front surface of the tanks, the photography hides their spatial context, thus creating an intensified, staged representation.The resulting colourful aquascapes are tableaus, in which the dichotomies of reality and virtuality, presence and absence, the animate and inanimate are played out and nature is turned into culture. The fish tanks are presented as modern-day cabinets of curiosities – sophisticated arrangements of mineral, floral and faunal exhibits. For this project, Studio Willen cooperated with art historian Dr. Jörg Scheller of the Zurich University of the Arts to further explore the conceptual scope of the material.