Chalets of Switzerland

The chalet, a luxurious and romantic remote mountain hut that exists in “splendid isolation” in a sunny winter landscape — this is one of the most popular cliché images of Switzerland. However, the actual meaning of the term “chalet”, derived from the Latin word cala: “protected place”, is simply that of an Alpine dairy hut oder shelter. On his many trips through his adopted home, Patrick Lambertz has run into many houses that do not conform to the chliché of the Swiss chalet. They are old houses that barely managed to escape the building and renovation boom that has plagued the country for decades. By photographing them in front of a wintery backdrop he abstracts these houses from their context, heightens their individual character, and provides them with an aura of poetry and irony. Following the tradition of Karl Blossfeldt and Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lambertz creates a typological canon of forgotten, yet memorable Swiss houses. Nature itself provides the photo studio: cloudy skies and dense fog provide soft light with little contrast. Snow covered mountains and hills deliver the neutral backdrop.

Book launch, talk, signing
Thursday, 12.5. from 6 pm

After a lengthy genesis, the "Chalets of Switzerland" book is finished just in time for the end of the exhibition at Hartmann Projects. Bound as a Swiss brochure and typeset with Swiss by legendary Dutch photo book designer SYB and printed at Offizin Scheufele (in Degerloch), the book is a hymn to the color white. The unglamorous chalets slowly appear out of nowhere as you turn the pages and disappear back into nothingness. Patrick Lambertz will talk with Markus Hartmann starting at 7pm about this work, its genesis, and the experiences of making books (concepts, design processes, paper shortages, the photographer's (and publisher's) fear of printing, etc.). Before and after there will be an opportunity to visit the exhibition (and also the other exhibitions in the Galerienhaus) and to talk to Patrick Lambertz personally.

Exhibition
March 20–May 14, 2022
Closed April 16, 2022
Opening
March 19, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Opening hours
Tue–Fr, 2–7 p.m.
Sa, 12 a.m.–4 p.m.

Special opening hours
Art Alarm Stuttgart
Saturday April 9, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
Sunday April 10, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Prolab Stuttgart
Prolab is showing a selection of other works by Patrick Lambertz from March 18 to Aril 29, 2022. Opening there takes place March 18, 5:30 p.m.